BV  2360  .A44  1907 
American  Board  of 

Commissioners  for  Foreign 
The  one  hundredth 

annivprRarv  of  fh^  Havstar.W 


PROCEEDINGS 


OF    THE 


Ninety-Seventh  Annual  Meeting 


OF   THE 


American  Board  of  Commissioners 

FOR    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 
October  9-12,   1906 


Thompson  Memobial  Chapel. 
(At  Williams  College.) 


TIIK 
ONE    lirXDBEDTH   ANNIVERSARY 

OF    THE 

HAYSTACK  PRAYER  MEETING 

CELEBRATED    AT    THE 

Ninety-Seventh  Annual  Meeting 

OF    THE 

AMERICAN    BOARD 

IN   NORTH  ADAMS 

And  by  the  Haystack  Centennial  Meetings 

at  wllliamstown,  mass. 

October  9-12 

1906 


DEC   4   I9J 


BOSTON 

American  Board  of  Commissioners 

for  Foreign  Missions 

1907 


DEDICATION 


IN   HONORED   MEMORY   OF 

Samuel  J.  Mills  and  His  Companions  op  the  Haystack 

and  of   all  who  have 

labored  with  the  ameiih'an   board 

for  the  extension    of 

Christ's  Kingdom  on  Earth 

We  now  dedicate  this  volume  to 

Their  Heirs  and  Successors 
in  the  Great  Work  op 
Woeld   Evangelization 

1806  -  190G 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Introduction,  including:  page. 

Significance  of  the  Occasion 1 

Acknowledgments 2 

Historical  Statement 3 

Services  op  Tuesday,  October  9. 

Notice  of  Opening  Service 7 

Address  of  Welcome,  by  his  Honor  Marshall  R.  Ford 8 

Response,  by  President  Samuel  B.  Capen,  LL.D 9 

Extracts  from  Reports ;  of   the  Treasurer,  Frank  H.  Wiggin    .    .  11 

Home  Secretary,  Rev.  Cornelius  H.  Patton,  D.D 14 

Foreign  Secretary,  with  Annual  Survey  of  the  Field,  Rev.  James 

L.  Barton,  D.D 18 

Department  for  Young  People  and  Education,  Associate  Secre- 
tary Harry  W.  Hicks      33 

The  Rising  Tide.   Address  by  Rev.  William  S.  Dodd,  M.D.    ...  39 
Present  Opportunity  in  Micronesia.     Address  by  Rev.  Irving  M. 

Channon    . 43 

Tuesday  Evening  Service. 

Annual  Sermon,  by  Rev.  George  A.  Gates,  D.D 45 

Services     of     the     Haystack    Centennial     Day,     Wednesday, 

October  10. 

Introductory  Notice 59 

Mission  Study  Class  Methods.  Address  I  >y  Mr.  T.  H.  P.  Sailer,  Ph.D.         60 

Notice  of  Morning  Sessions 62 

Academic  Service  in  Thompson  Memorial  Chapel. 

Address  of  Welcome,  by  President  Henry  Hopkins,  D.D 63 

Response,  by  President  Samuel  B.  Capen,  LL.D 66 

The  New  Premises  and  the  Old  Conclusions.  Address  by  President 

William  DeWitt  Hyde,  D.D 68 

A  Missionary  Centur)r.    Address  by  President  William  J.  Tucker, 

D.D " 72 

The  Evangelization  of  the  World,  the  Essential  Condition  of  Ameri- 
can Christianity.    Address  by  Rev.  Edward  Judson,  D.D.      .    .         78 
Student  Volunteer  Service. 

Notice  of  the  Meeting 84 

New  Motives  and  Changed  Purposes  in  Missions.    Address  by  Rev. 

John  Hopkins  Denison 84 

The  Significance  of  this  Anniversary.     Address  by  Rev.  Newell 

Dwight  Hillis,  D.D 94 

The  Price  of  Missionary  Success.    Summary  of  Address  by  Rev. 

Samuel  M.  Zwemer,  D.D 104 


V11I  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Wednesday  Afternoon,  Mission  Park  Service. 

Notice  of  Open-Air  Service 105 

Opening  Address  by  Hon.  Samuel  B.  Capen,  LL.D 108 

The  Future  of  Missionary  Work.    Address  by  Rev.  Arthur  Judson 

Brown,  D.D 110 

Brief  Addresses  by  Native  Christians  from  the  Foreign  Mission 

Fields 124-142 

Arnold  Sidobe  Hiwale,  of  India 124 

Henry  M.  Hoisington  Kulasinghe,  of  Ceylon 127 

Akaiko  Akana,  of  Hawaii      12S 

Fei  Chi  Hao,  of  China 129 

H.  H.  K'ung,  of  China 131 

Rev.  Oscar  M.  Chamberlain,  of  Turkey 133 

Stephen  ka  Ndunge  Gumede,  of  South  Africa 135 

Rev.  S.  Sato,  of  Japan 13S 

Rev.  Philip  Reitinger,  of  Bohemia 139 

Seiior  Frederic  R.  Ponce,  of  Mexico 142 

Thank  Offering  and  Prayer  Meeting 143 

The  Men  of  the  Haystack  the  Forerunners  of  the  Student  Volunteer  . 

Movement.   Address  by  Luther  D.  Wishard 143 

Wednesday  Evening  Sessions. 

Notice  of  Services 149 

Williamstown  Congregational  Church. 
The  Hospital  in  Cesarea.     Address  by  Rev.  William  S.  Dodd, 

M.D.,  of  Western  Turkey 150 

The  American  College,  Madura,  and  the  Conquest  of  an  Empire. 

Address  by  President  William  M.  Zumbro 155 

Christian  Missions  in  Turkey.  Address  by  Rev.  Stephen  Van 

R.  Trowbridge ICO 

North  Adams  Methodist  Church. 

Changes  within  the  Century  in  Foreign  Missionary  Theory  and 

Practice.    Address  by  President  Henry  C.  King,  D.D.     ...       163 

Memorial  from  the  Armenian  Evangelical  Alliance 177 

The  Message  of  the  Haystack  Men  to  the  Church  of  Today. 

Address  by  Rev.  Henry  E.  Cobb,  D.D 179 

North  Adams  Baptist  Church. 

The  Kind  of  Young  Men  and  Women  Needed  for  the  Mission 

Field.     Address  by  Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D 185 

The  Vision  of  the  Haystack  Band  Realized  by  the  Students  of 

this  Generation.    Address  by  Mr.  John  R.  Mott 187 

The  Missionary  Challenge  to  the  Students  of  this  Generation. 

Address  by  Prof.  Harlan  P.  Beach 200 

North  Adams  Congregational  Church. 

Haystack  Men  in  the  Ministry.    Address  by  Rev.  Charles  O. 

Day,  D.D 210 

The  Hero  of  the  Haystack.    An  Illustrated  Leclure  by  Rev. 

Thomas  C.  Richards 214 


CONTENTS.  IX 

PAGE. 

Services  op  Thursday,  October  11. 
Morning  Service. 

Notice  of  the  Session       221 

Opening  Address  by  Rev.  George  F.  Pentecost,  I).  1) 221 

Greeting  from  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ.  Address  by  Bishop 

William  M.  Bell,  D.D 223 

Greeting  from  the  Methodist  Protestants.    Address  by  Rev.  T.  J. 

Ogburn,  D.D 227 

Response  to  the  Greetings.    By  Rev.  Edward  C.  Moore,  D.D.     .    .       232 
Report  by  the  Committee  on  the  Report  of  the  Foreign  Depart- 
ment. Read  by  Rev.  George  H.  Ewing 234 

The  Work  of  the  Foreign  Department.    Address  by  Rev.  Raymond 

Calkins      235 

The  West  Central  Africa  Mission.     Address  by  Rev.  Walter  T. 

Currie 245 

Report  by  the  Committee  on  the  Report  of  the  Home  Department,       250 

and  Address  on  the  Work  of  the  Home  Department,  by  Rev. 

Robert  W.  McLaughlin,  D.D 252 

Report  by  the  Committee  on  the  Treasurer's  Report,  Mr.  Joshua 

W.  Davis 255 

Afternoon  Service. 

Notice  of  the  Business  Session,  with  the  most  important  of  the 

Resolutions 260 

Discussion  of  the  Future  Policy  of  the  Board  at  Home.    Partici- 
pated in  by  Rev.  Lyman  Abbott,  D.D 262 

Rev.  Charles  C.  Creegan,  D.D 268 

Rev.  A.  N.  Hitchcock,  Ph.D 273 

Rev.  H.  Melville  Tenney 277 

Evening  Services. 

Notice  of  the  Meetings 280 

The  Evangelization  of  the  Mohammedan  World  in  this  Genera- 
tion.   Address  by  Rev.  Samuel  M.  Zwemer,  D.D *    281 

Moslems  in  Turkey.    Address  by  Rev.  James  L.  Barton,  D.D.  .    .  289 

India's  Millions  for  Christ.    Address  by  Rev.  Henry  G.  Bissell  .    .  297 

Messages  from  the  Marathi  Missionaries  and  Native  Christians      .  309 

Service  of  Friday,  October  12. 

Notice  of  the  Closing  Session 313 

Address  in  Memory  of  Secretary  Judson  Smith,  D.D.,  by  Rev. 

Edward  D.  Eaton,  D.D 316 

How  the  Gospel  Works  among  the  Zulus.     Address  by  Rev.  Fred- 
erick B.  Bridgman       319 

A  Plea  for  the  Medical  AVork  in  China.    Address  by  Rev.  H.  N. 

Kinnear,  M.D 324 

The  Work  and  the  Missionary.  Address  by  Rev.  E.  G.  Tewksbury,  328 
Madura  Mission  and  Its  Work.  Address  by  Rev.  John  S.  Chandler,  335 
The  Beauty  of  Service.    Address  b}^  Rev.  Robert  Ernest  Hume    .       342 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

China  Awakening.    Address  by  Rev.  James  H.  Roberts     ....  344 
Closing  Addresses,  by  Mr.  C.  Q.  Richmond,  for  the  Entertainment 

Committee 347 

Rev.  W.  E.  Thompson,  for  the  Methodist  Church 348 

Rev.    Theodore    E.    Busfield,    D.D.,    for    the    Congregational 

Churches        350 

President  Samuel  B.  Capen,  LL.D.,  for  the  American  Board   .  353 

Indices  : 

Speakers 357 

Titles  of  Addresses      359 

Mission  Lands  Referred  to 363 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE. 

Thompson  Memorial  Chapel,  Williams  College,  as  Photographed 

on  October  10,  1906 Frontispiece 

Edge  of  Grove,  with  Glimpse  of  the  Haystack  Monument  .    .         Facing     62 

Site  of  the  Mission  Park  Service  of  October  10 Facing     84 

One  Third  of  the  Audience  at  the  Service  in  Mission  Park, 

October  10 '  .         Facing    108 

President  Capen  and  the  Native  Converts  at  the  Haystack 

Monument Facing    124 

Ordination  of  the  First  American  Foreign  Missionaries  (Nott, 
Judson,  Hall,,  Newell,  and  Rice),  at  the  Tabernacle  Church, 

Salem,  February  6,  1811 Facing    214 

Williamstown  Valley,  from  the  River Facing    260 

Rev.  Judson  Smith,  D.D.,  Foreign  Secretary  of  the  Board  from 

1884-1906 Facing   316 


INTRODUCTION. 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  OCCASION. 

The  great  missionary  advance  of  the  past  century  began  with 
several  simultaneous  movements,  so  far  as  New  England  is  con- 
cerned. The  old  "  Societies  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  " 
were  moribund  in  the  last  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  churches,  with  all  their  religious  activities,  had  suffered  from 
the  blight  of  post-revolutionary  skepticism.  Their  awakening 
came  at  the  end  of  the  century  through  the  renewal  of  the  mission- 
ary impulse  at  Yale  and  other  colleges,  in  the  Connecticut  Minis- 
terial Association,  and  in  similar  bodies  of  other  states. 

Probably  the  most  important  of  these  new  centers  of  mis- 
sionary growth  was  that  created  in  Williamstown,  by  the  intense 
conviction  and  unfaltering  purpose  inspired  by  God's  Spirit  in  the 
heart  of  Samuel  J.  Mills.  The  Haystack  Prayer  Meeting  of  1806 
was  not  the  origin,  but  rather  furnished  the  occasion  for  his  true 
missionary  purpose  to  express  itself  and  to  make  deep  and  abid- 
ing impressions  upon  the  life  and  purposes  of  other  men. 

If  John  R.  Mott  is  right  in  defining  a  leader  as  "  one  who 
knows  the  way,  can  keep  ahead,  and  can  get  others  to  follow 
him,"  then  the  Providence  of  God  has  given  conspicuous  place 
among  church  leaders  to  this  modest,  self-effacing,  inconspicuous 
youth  who  never  thought  of  himself  as  a  pioneer.  He  was  intent 
upon  persuading  Christians  to  do  their  whole  duty,  that  was  all. 
He  would  have  been  in  hearty  accord  with  the  thought  uttered 
one  hundred  years  after  the  thunderstorm  meeting  in  a  missionary 
assembly  at  Silver  Bay,  —  "When  Christianity  possesses  Chris- 
tians, it  will  possess  the  world." 

It  is  singularly  fitting  that  the  most  powerful  annual  meeting 
of  our  great  missionary  organization  should  have  been  held  where 
it  could  bear  witness  to  the  correctness  of  Mills'  position.  Success 
in  the  raising  of  one  million  dollars  in  a  single  year  for  the  work 
of  the  American  Board,  and  a  parallel  success  in  the  spiritual  work 
upon  the  mission  fields  abroad,  were  joyfully  celebrated  within 


2  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

sight  of  old  (keylock,  in  that  same  college,  "  beautiful  for  situ- 
ation," in  which  Mills  had  long  ago  looked  "  unto  the  hills,  unto 
God,  whence  cometh  help." 

The  practice  and  the  power  of  prayer  are  abundantly  evidenced 
by  this  Centennial.  Because  Mills  and  his  friends  were  in  the 
habit  of  meeting  often  in  that  grove,  they  sought  retirement  there 
on  that  day  in  the  month  of  August,  1806.  Because  they  cherished 
such  opportunities  they  were  not  ready  to  give  them  up  upon  a 
slight  pretext.  Because  they  trusted  Him  who  rode  upon  the 
storm,  the  thunder  had  no  terrifying  effect  llpon  them,  but  spoke 
of  the  power  given  to  those  who  had  no  strength. 

What  the  discovery  of  Franklin  was  to  the  physical  and  indus- 
trial world  in  opening  the  way  to  new  developments,  as  he  drew 
the  electrical  spark  from  the  midst  of  those  flashing  thunder 
clouds,  that  was  the  contact  of  Mills  with  the  power  of  God's 
Spirit  to  the  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical  world.  His  utterance, 
"  We  can  do  it  if  we  will,"  was  the  spark  that  showed  great  sup- 
plies of  spiritual  reserve  power  in  God  and  man.  Those  inex- 
haustible reserves  of  power  were  not  fully  understood  and  were 
being  little  drawn  upon  at  that  time,  but  they  have  shown  by  the 
results  achieved  in  one  hundred  years  what  limitless  achieve- 
ments are  possible  in  the  great  task  of  bringing  the  world  to 
Christ. 

The  impression  made  by  such  meetings  as  those  held  at  North 
Adams  and  Williamstown  is  like  the  impression  of  a  visit  to  the 
power  house  of  some  great  electric  system.  In  order  to  put  those 
impressions  within  the  reach  of  all  who  are  in  sympathy  with  the 
world-wide  work  of  missions,  this  volume  is  prepared. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 

For  the  use  of  some  of  the  cuts  contained  in  the  souvenir  pam- 
phlet provided  at  Williamstown  under  the  title  of  "  The  Hay- 
stack Prayer  Meeting,"  the  Board  is  indebted  to  the  courtesy  of 
Rev.  F.  T.  Clayton,  chairman  of  the  Souvenir  Program  Committee. 

The  completeness  of  the  arrangements  made  for  the  holding  of 
the  meetings  and  for  entertainment  of  members  of  the  Board, 
and  of  many  other  visitors,  is  due  to  the  hard  work  and  efficient 
cooperation  of  the  following  local  committees,  with  the  officers 
and  committees  of  the  Board: 


INTRODUCTION.  .  6 

NORTH  ADAxMS  COMMITTEES. 
General  Chairman,  Theodore  E.  Busfield,  D.D. 

Finance.  —  D.  J.  Barber,  Chairman;  T.  W.  Sykes,  C.  H.  Cutting. 

Entertainment.  —  C.  Q.  Richmond,  Chairman;  George  French,  Mrs.  H.  E. 
Wetherbee,  Mrs.  George  W.  Chase. 

Arrangements.  —  George  W.  Chase,  Chairman;  W.  F.  Darby,  Mrs.  C.  H. 
Cutting. 

Railroad.  —  F.  E.  Carlisle,  Chairman;  H.  E.  Wetherbee. 

Welcome.  —  Jesse  B.  Spruill. 

Program.  —  James  E.  Hunter,  Chairman;  Mrs.  J.  C.  Goodrich. 

WILLIAMSTOWN  COMMITTEES. 
General  Committee.  —  Leverett  Mears,  Chairman ;   Miss  Grace  Perry, 
Secretary. 

Finance.  —  G.  B.  Waterman,  Chairman. 

Entertainment.  —  E.  M.  Lewis,  Chairman. 

Luncheon.  —  Mrs.  Botsford,  Chairman. 

Souvenir  Program.  —  F.  T.  Clayton,  Chairman. 

Reception.  —  Leverett  Mears,  Chairman. 

Exercises  and  Meetings.  —  Henry  Hopkins,  Chairman. 

ADAMS  COMMITTEE. 
F.  E.  Mole,  Chairman. 

Recognition  should  also  be  given  to  the  publishers  of  the  North 
Adams  Transcript,  for  issuing  a  full  report  of  the  meetings  and 
addresses.  Through  the  aid  of  Rev.  James  H.  Ross,  who  edited 
the  proceedings  for  the  press,  and  of  the  special  stenographer, 
Rev.  W.  H.  Gleason,  the  meetings  were  more  completely  reported 
than  usual,  and  the  North  Adams  Transcript  deserved  the  success 
it  met  with  in  circulating  some  twenty-two  thousand  copies  of  its 
special  edition. 

Rev.  H.  E.  Peabody,  of  Hartford,  and  Rev.  Thomas  C.  Richards, 
of  Warren,  whose  biography  of  Mills  should  be  read  in  connection 
with  this  volume,  have  helped  in  preparing  the  notices  of  the 
meetings. 


HISTORICAL  STATEMENT. 

Let  us  now  go  back  for  a  moment  to  the  year  1806.  A  revival 
in  the  village  of  Williamstown  had  preceded  and  prepared  for  an 
awakening  among  the  college  students.  A  devout  woman,  Mrs. 
Bardwell,  had  asked  some  of  them  to  hold  prayer  meetings  in  her 
house  six  months  before  Samuel  J.  Mills  entered  college,  but  it 


4  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

was  the  impulse  that  he  brought  with  him  from  a  similar  revival 
in  his  own  home  in  Litchfield  County  that  gave  a  special  mis- 
sionary turn  to  this  new  awakening.  Twice  a  week  he  was  in 
the  habit  of  meeting  with  other  students  for  prayer,  out  of  doors. 
On  Saturdays  the  place  was  in  a  grove  near  the  college.  One 
Saturday  in  August,  Mills'  prayer  group  of  five  students  was 
driven  from  the  shelter  of  this  grove  by  a  thunderstorm.  They 
sought  refuge  from  the  driving  rain  on  the  lee  side  of  a  great  hay- 
stack, open  to  the  sky,  but  shielded  from  wind  and  rain.  Their 
conversation  and  prayers  continued.  They  had  studied  Asia  in  the 
class  room.  Now  they  talked  of  Asia's  need  of  spiritual  enlight- 
enment. Mills  declared  that  they  must  send  the  gospel  to  those 
Orientals.  They  were  all  agreed  with  him  except  one,  who  held 
that  civilization  must  precede  Christianity.  In  order  that  they 
might  become  united  in  purpose,  they  knelt  again  in  prayer  while 
"  the  dark  clouds  were  going  and  the  clear  sky  coming."  Because 
of  that  meeting  clouds  of  human  indifference  were  rolled  by,  that 
the  sunshine  of  God's  love  in  Christ  might  "  touch  and  glance  on 
every  land." 

Before  leaving  college,  Mills  organized  a  secret  society  whose 
aim  was  "  to  effect,  in  the  persons  of  its  members,  a  mission 
to  the  heathen."  It  was  distinguished  by  no  Greek  letter  name, 
but  known  to  insiders  simply  as  "  Brethren."  They  did  not  wish 
to  jeopardize  the  missionary  beginnings  by  undue  pretension  or 
publicity. 

Richards  went  with  Mills  to  Andover  Seminary,  while  the 
others,  Robbins  and  Loomis,  prepared  for  the  ministry  elsewhere. 
While  he  was  still  at  Andover  Seminary,  he  joined  with  others  of 
like  purpose  there  in  urging  the  churches  to  appoint  as  foreign 
missionaries  several  students  who  had  expressed  their  desire  to 
go  abroad.  There  was  then  no  American  Society  of  Foreign 
Missions  to  employ  them,  but  as  a  result  of  this  appeal  the  General 
Association  of  Massachusetts  appointed  a  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions  in  the  year  1810.  This  was  the  beginning  of 
the  American  Board.  For  his  later  life  and  achievements,  we 
must  refer  the  reader  to  his  biography. 

His  services  in  the  generation  of  missionary  purpose  among  the 
churches  were  inestimable.  It  is  a  just  tribute  to  Mills  and  his 
companions  that  the  Haystack  Monument  bears  this  inscription, 
"  The  Birthplace  of  American  Foreign  Missions." 


SERVICES  OF  THE  FIRST  DAY, 

Tuesday,  October  9,    1906, 
AT    NORTH    ADAMS. 


"  Come,  let  us  make  it  a  subject  of  prayer  under  the  Haystack, 
while  the  dark  clouds  are  going,  and  the  clear  sky  is  coming." 

SAMUEL  J.  MILLS. 


THE  SECRET  OF  STRENGTH. 

In  quietness  and  in  confidence  shall  be  your  strength.  —  Isaiah  30  :  15. 

In  quietness  pursue  thy  way, 

Though  mingling  with  the  hurrying  crowd; 

Naught  shall  thy  steadfast  soul  dismay  — 
Not  threatening  ills,  nor  clamors  loud  — 

For  thou  within  thy  heart  mayst  seek 

The  stillness  wherein  God  shall  speak. 

In  confidence  thy  task  be  wrought, 

With  purpose  true,  unselfish,  high. 
The  Master  knoweth  all  thy  thought 

And  his  the  power  thy  work  to  try. 
Judged  not  by  failure  or  success 
He  shall  approve  thy  faithfulness. 

And  so  the  strength  for  every  need 

Shall  come  to  thee  through  all  thy  days; 

And  so  shall  e'en  the  simplest  deed 
Be  consecrated  to  his  praise, 

And  thou  retain  'mid^earthly  strife 

The  calm,  the  peace,  the  joy  of  life. 

—  Jessie  Forsyth. 


OPENING    SERVICES. 


OPEN1NC  SERVICES. 


The  first  sessions  of  the  ninety-seventh  annual  meeting  of 
the  American  Board  were  held  in  North  Adams.  Through  the 
courtesy  of  the  Methodists,  their  roomy  house  of  worship  accom- 
modated audiences  which  were  very  large  from  the  start.  Here, 
on  Tuesday  afternoon,  October  9,  was  afforded  shelter  from  a 
drizzling  rain.  Little  time  was  given  to  preliminaries.  After  a 
devotional  service  and  one  brief  but  cordial  address  of  welcome 
by  Mayor  Ford,  with  a  response  by  President  Capen,  the  business 
of  the  annual  meeting  was  taken  up. 

After  the  reading  of  minutes  came  the  eagerly  expected  report 
of  the  treasurer,  showing  a  very  large  increase  in  receipts  over  the 
preceding  year,  which  had  in  its  turn  witnessed  a  marked  advance 
over  the  year  ending  in  1904. 

The  best  piece  of  financial  news,  however,  was  reserved  for  the 
close  of  the  report  upon  the  Home  Department.  Secretary  Patton 
said  that  after  the  accounts  for  the  year  were  put  in  printed  form 
the  entire  balance  of  the  million  dollars  so  earnestly  sought  had 
been  raised  and  the  debt  was  canceled  thereby.  After  the  hush 
of  intense  interest  with  which  this  announcement  was  received, 
there  came  an  outburst  of  enthusiastic  gratitude  and  joy.  Long 
applause  was  followed  by  prayer  in  which  Rev.  Henry  Hopkins, 
D.D.,  was  the  leader. 

Immediately  after  the  close  of  this  prayer  an  aged  man  started 
the  singing  of  the  doxology,  in  which  nearly  a  thousand  voices 
joined.  Thus,  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  sessions  a  new  stage  of 
progress  was  reached,  a  new  boundary  passed,  and  a  new  standard 
and  ideal  of  achievement  for  coming  years  set  up. 

The  other  reports  and  addresses  of  the  afternoon  showed  prog- 
ress in  work  abroad,  commensurate  with  the  enlarged  support  at 
home.  The  international  bearings  of  foreign  missions  were  espe- 
cially brought  out  by  Dr.  Barton's  annual  survey,  which  is  printed 
only  in  part  in  this  volume,  since  it  may  be  had  in  full  in  the  issue 
of  the  Missionary  Herald  for  November,  1906,  which  contains  also 
the  full  report  of  the  treasurer,  Mr.  Frank  H.  Wiggin.  Secretary 
Patton's  and  Secretary  Hicks'  reports  are  published  in  separate 
form  by  the  Board,  and  may  be  had  upon  application.  Only 
extracts  from  them  are  included  here. 


THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME. 
By  Marshall  R.  Ford,  Mayor  of  North  Adams. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Corporate  Members,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  of  the 
Foreign  Board:  I  feel  signally  honored  this  afternoon  to  be  privi- 
leged, as  the  chief  executive  of  this  city,  to  extend  to  you  the  most 
cordial  greeting  and  welcome  of  her  citizens.  Your  selection  of 
this  as  the  scene  of  your  deliberations  will  always  be  considered 
a  high  compliment  to  our  city  and  ourselves.  Your  choice  is 
particularly  appropriate  for  the  observance  of  the  one  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  event  which  led  to  the  foundation  of  your 
organization,  since,  within  the  shadow  of  these  hills,  it  first  took 
form. 

How  well  its  founders  builded  is  best  understood  by  the  remark- 
able growth  and  splendid  results  it  has  attained  during  its  century- 
old  existence.  It  is  always  a  source  of  pleasure  and  pride  to  me 
to  bid  such  gatherings  welcome,  and  I  wish  now  to  do  so  in  the 
most  cordial  manner  possible.  The  freedom  of  the  city  is  yours, 
and  I  am  sure  our  people  will  accord  you  generous  treatment  and 
cooperation  during  your  stay. 

It  is  doubly  pleasing  to  me  to  supplement  the  welcome  of  the 
city  by  that  of  the  local  Congregational  society  of  which  I  have 
long  had  the  honor  of  being  a  member.  We,  too,  keenly  appre- 
ciate the  compliment  of  your  presence,  and  I  am  fully  warranted 
in  guaranteeing  you  the  most  sincere  and  hearty  cooperation  of 
our  minister  and  our  members. 

Our  church  has  always  been  deeply  interested  in  all  your 
activities,  and  mingles  her  welcome  with  her  congratulations  and 
best  wishes. 

That  your  efforts  may  meet  with  a  generous  reward,  and  that 
your  stay  in  our  midst  may  be  filled  with  pleasant  things,  is  the 
wish  of  our  church  and  our  city. 


RESPONSE    OF    PRESIDENT    CAPEX. 


RESPONSE. 

By  Hon.  Samuel  B.  Capen,  LL.D., 

President  of  the  American  Board. 

Mr.  Mayor  and  Members  of  the  Committee:  I  wish  to  thank  you 
on  behalf  of  the  American  Board  for  this  hearty  welcome.  I 
doubt  if  in  all  the  past  nearly  one  hundred  years  there  has  ever 
been  held  any  meeting  of  the  Board  which  has  been  looked  for- 
ward to  with  so  much  eager  expectation  as  this.  It  is  to  be  an 
historic  meeting,  for  it  is  the  centennial  of  one  of  the  greatest 
events  in  human  history,  measured  by  its  results.  For  all  the 
great  labor  involved  in  preparation  for  our  coming,  we  are  most 
grateful. 

Last  year  the  American  Board  met  for  its  annual  meeting  far 
away  upon  the  Pacific  coast,  and  thought  of  the  marvelous 
changes  that  had  occurred  since  the  missionaries  of  the  American 
Board  did  their  great  pioneer  work  in  the  northwest.  The  wilder- 
ness of  their  day  has  become  an  empire  of  prosperous  states. 
But  today  we  go  further  back  in  our  thoughts  to  a  little  group  of 
students  in  prayer  under  a  haystack,  the  birthplace  of  foreign 
missions  in  America. 

Like  all  great  things,  the  beginning  of  the  foreign  missionary 
movement  seemed  so  insignificant.  It  started  when  the  religious 
conditions  of  our  nation  were  almost  at  their  worst.  Religion  was 
a  subject  of  ridicule.  The  student  life  at  Yale,  Princeton,  and 
Williams  was  permeated  with  skepticism.  When  the  "  Society 
of  Brethren"  was  formed,  in  1808,  in  order  to  prevent  sneer  and 
ridicule  the  constitution  and  records  were  written  in  cipher. 

A  hundred  years  have  gone  by  and  what  a  change!  The  Bible 
has  been  printed  in  over  four  hundred  languages  and  dialects, 
and  the  missionaries  of  this  Board  have  done  much  to  make  this 
possible.  We  have  planted  churches,  schools,  colleges,  theological 
seminaries,  hospitals,  and  printing  presses.  Jeremiah  Evarts 
declared  about  eighty  years  ago  that  "  some  of  us  may  live  to 
see  the  time  when  the  receipts  of  the  Board  shall  be  $10,000  a 
month!  "  How  little  did  the  leaders  of  his  day  realize  what  the 
growth  was  to  be.  At  the  semi-centennial  in  1856,  held  at 
Williamstown,  Secretary  Rufus  Anderson  stated  that  the  Board 
had  at  that  time  420  missionaries  and  about  300  native  helpers, 


10  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

and  that  the  receipts  for  the  first  fifty  years  had  been  $6,800,000. 
On  this  centennial  year  we  have  565  missionaries,  over  4,000 
native  helpers,  and  the  receipts  for  the  past  fifty  years  have  been 
over  $30,000,000.  The  report  of  this  meeting  will  not  be  written 
in  cipher.  The  whole  world  is  interested  in  it,  and  what  is  said 
and  done  here  will  be  known  speedily  in  both  continents. 

Wonderful  things  have  been  accomplished  in  the  century  that 
is  now  ended,  and  we  are  here  to  thank  God  for  it  all;  the  success 
is  all  his,  not  ours.  But  more  than  this,  we  are  here  to  look  into 
the  future  and  to  plan  for  larger  things.  We  have  prayed  that 
this  may  be  a  great  spiritual  meeting.  I  doubt  if  any  previous 
annual  meeting  has  been  prayed  over  in  both  hemispheres  like 
this.  The  power  of  these  young  men  of  the  haystack  in  their 
working  with  God  came  in  answer  to  prayer,  and  we  need  to 
recognize  more  and  more  the  same  source  of  strength.  Robert  E. 
Speer  has  well  said  that  "  the  evangelization  of  the  world  in  this 
generation  depends  first  of  all  upon  a  revival  of  prayer."  Let 
us  begin  the  new  century  where  Mills  and  his  associates  began  the 
last, —  in  earnest  prayer  to  God.  He  can  increase  the  gifts  and  bless 
them  and  the  giver  alike,  multiplying  their  power,  till  every  man 
everywhere  shall  know  of  the  cross  and  of  Him  who  died  to  redeem 
the  nations.  Then  shall  the  dream  of  the  men  of  the  haystack  and 
the  prayers  they  here  offered  be  satisfied.  Yea,  more,  even  Christ 
himself  "  shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  shall  be  satisfied." 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REPORT  OF  TREASURER.  11 


EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  REPORT  OF  THE  TREASURER, 
FRANK  H.  WIGGIN, 

For  the  Year  Ending  August  31,  1906. 

The  receipts  of  the  Board  have  far  exceeded  those  of  any 
previous  twelve  months.     They  have  come  from 

Churches  and  individuals $450,856.29 

The  Woman's  Boards 246,239.95 

Sunday-schools  and  Y.  P.  S.  C.  E 19,217.66 

Receipts  for  special  objects 51,519.81 

Legacies 124,145.17 

Interest 21,180.76 

The  gain  in  gifts  from  living  donors  was  $172,542.45.  While 
the  total  receipts  for  1905  were  an  increase  over  the  previous 
year,  the  receipts  for  1906  showed  an  increase  of  $161,008.89  over 
the  receipts  of  1905,  and  they  reached  altogether  the  sum  of 
$913,159.64. 

The  debt  with  which  the  year  began  was  the  largest  in  the 
Board's  history.  Much  time  and  study  were  given  by  the  Pru- 
dential Committee,  the  Finance  Committee,  and  the  officers,  to 
the  cost  of  every  department  of  the  work,  and  each  item  of 
expense  was  closely  scrutinized.  The  appropriations  for  work 
on  the  field  were  not  reduced,  but  were  made  on  the  same  basis 
of  expenditure  as  in  recent  years.  The  Morning  Star,  however, 
was  retained  at  Honolulu,  and,  save  in  the  case  of  missionaries 
supported  by  the  Woman's  Boards,  no  new  missionary  appoint- 
ments were  made  involving  immediate  expenditure.  This  resulted 
in  a  material  reduction  in  the  cost  of  outfits  and  traveling  expenses 
of  outward-bound  new  missionaries.  The  increase  in  the  cost  of 
agencies  was  due  entirely  to  the  expenses  of  the  special  campaign. 
The  other  expenses  of  this  department,  as  well  as  those  of  Publi- 
cations, the  Young  People's  Department,  and  the  Shipping 
Department,  were  reduced.  The  cost  of  each  of  the  missions 
appears  in  the  printed  tabulated  statement.  The  total  disburse- 
ments of  the  Board  for  the  year  were  $853,680.88.  The  present 
debt  of  our  Board  is  $85,417.39. 


12  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

SUMMARY  OF  RECEIPTS. 
Donations,    as    acknowledged    in    the    Missionary 

Herald $767,833.71 

Legacies,  as  acknowledged  in  the  Missionary  Herald,     124,145.17 

Interest  on  General  Permanent  Fund 21,180.76 

$913,159.64 

Balance  due  August  31, 1906,  from  W.  B.  M.  I.     .    .  28,469.51 

Balance  due  August  31,  1906,  from  Canada  Cong. 

Foreign  Missionary  Society 3,162.25 

Balance  at  debit  of  the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.  August  31, 1906,  85,417.39 


$1,030,208.79 
SUMMARY  OF  EXPENDITURES. 
Cost  of  Missions. 

Mission  to  West  Central  Africa $21,795.81 

Mission  to  East  Central  Africa      10,431.08 

Zulu  Mission 33,610.08 

Mission  to  European  Turkey 38,870.93 

Mission  to  Western  Turkey .  103,103.72 

Mission  to  Central  Turkey 44,655.29 

Mission  to  Eastern  Turkey 43,574.17 

Marathi  Mission 90,740.99 

Madura  Mission 62,637.62 

Ceylon  Mission .    .    .    .  11,704.14 

Foochow  Mission 51,611.43 

South  China  Mission 7,621.84 

North  China  Mission 67,743.12 

Shansi  Mission 9,353.15 

Mission  to  Japan 89,648.87 

Hawaiian  Islands 350.00 

Micronesian  Mission 24,872.32 

Mission  to  Mexico 25,149.11 

Mission  to^Spain      19,056.91 

Mission  to  Austria 10,196.71 

Philippine  Islands  Mission 1,803.69 

$768,530.9S 

Cost  of  Agencies. 
Salaries  of  District  and  Field  Secretaries,  their  travel- 
ing expenses,  and  those  of  missionaries  visiting  the 

churches,  and  other  like  expenses $31,835.04 

Young  People's  Department      5,940.54 

37,775.5S 

Cost  of  Publications. 
Missionary  Herald  (including  salaries  of 
Editor  and  Publishing  Agent,  and 
copies  sent  gratuitously,  according  to 
the  rule  of  the  Board,  to  pastors,  honor- 
ary members,  donors,  etc.) $9,808.93 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REPORT  OF  TREASURER.  13 

Less  amount   received   from 

subscribers $2,808.77 

and  for  advertisements  .    .       1,725.20 
From  income  of  Missionary 

HeraldFxmd 103.60 

4,637.57 

$5,171.36 

Expenses   of   preparation    of 

History  of  American  Board     $2,054.25 
All  other  publications     .    .    .       3,795.01 

$5,849.26 

Less  amount  received  from  sales  ....  114.32 

5,734.94 

'  10,906.30 

Cost  of  Administration. 

Department  of  Correspondence $14,034.57 

Treasurer's  Department 9,956.93 

New  York  City 2,544.94 

Miscellaneous  items  (including  rent  of  "  Missionary 
Rooms,"  furniture  and  repairs,  electric  light,  post- 
age, stationery,  copying  and  printing,  library, 
insurance  of  do.,  honorary  members' certificates)    .         9,931.58 

36,468.02 

Debt  September  1, 1905 176,527.91 

Total $1,030,208.79 


14  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


EXTRACTS    FROM    THE    REPORT    OP    THE    HOME 
SECRETARY,  REV.  CORNELIUS  H.  PATTON,  D.D. 

Death  of  Secretary  Smith. 

For  the  first  time  in  twenty-two  years  the  Board  meets  without 
the  presence  of  Secretary  Judson  Smith,  D.D.  Elected  at  the 
Columbus  meeting  of  the  Board,  in  1884,  to  fill  the  place  created 
by  the  death  of  Secretary  Means,  he  was  associated  with  Secretary 
Clark  in. the  care  of  the  Foreign  Department  until  the  latter's 
retirement  in  1894.  From  that  time  until  his  own  death,  June  29, 
1906,  he  was  senior  Secretary.  During  this  long  term  of  service 
he  became  so  thoroughly  identified  with  the  work,  and  his  presence 
became  so  much  a  part  of  our  annual  gatherings,  that  to  many 
this  meeting  will  seem  lonely  and  strange  without  the  sight  of  his 
benignant  face  and  the  sound  of  his  rarely  sympathetic  voice. 
The  Prudential  Committee  passed  suitable  resolutions  at  the  time 
of  Secretary  Smith's  death,  expressing  for  the  Board  appreciation 
of  his  high  qualities  of  head  and  heart,  his  noble  services  for  the 
cause  of  foreign  missions,  and  sorrow  over  the  loss  we  have  sus- 
tained in  both  official  and  personal  ways.  The  resolutions  and 
personal  tributes  which  have  come  to  us  from  the  leading  mission- 
ary societies  of  this  country  and  Great  Britain,  and  from  men 
prominently  connected  with  this  work  at  home  and  abroad,  indi- 
cate that  Dr.  Smith  was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  figures  in 
the  missionary  world.  This  widespread  recognition  of  his  worth 
has  brought  great  honor  to  our  Board,  and  it  should  be  a  cause  of 
sincere  gratitude  on  our  part  that  so  many  organizations  share 
with  us  in  the  appreciation  of  this  noble  life. 

Appointment  of  Missionaries. 

On  account  of  the  large  debt  of  the  previous  year,  the  Prudential 
Committee  determined  to  make  no  missionary  appointments  to 
take  effect  during  the  fiscal  year  aside  from  unmarried  women 
supported  by  the  Woman's  Boards.  This  policy  was  strictly 
adhered  to,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  our  missionaries  as  a 
class  are  sadly  overworked  on  account  of  the  severe  retrenchment 
of  recent  years.  These  men  and  women  we  are  sending  to  the 
front  are  breaking  down  to  an  alarming  degree,  and  the  churches 
should  know  what  it  means  to  them,  to  their  friends,  and  to  the 


EXTRACTS    FROM    REPORT    OF    HOME    SECRETARY.  15 

work,  for  the  Prudential  Committee  to  adopt  the  policy  of  the 
past  year.  Only  a  dire  necessity  could  lead  to  such  a  step.  It 
should  be  borne  in  mind,  also,  that  the  need  increases  rapidly  with 
the  delay,  and  that  we  cannot  Longer  withhold  reinforcements  in 
certain  fields  without  imperiling  the  work  of  decades. 

Need  of  Candidate. 

We  wish  to  lose  no  opportunity  to  impress  upon  the  Board  that 
we  are  greatly  in  need  of  recruits.  The  impression  has  gone 
abroad  that  the  supply  of  missionary  candidates  is  greater  than 
the  demand.  Exactly  the  reverse  is  true.  The  false  impression 
probably  arises  from  the  large  number  of  student  volunteers 
reported  by  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement.  The  total  number 
for  all  institutions,  ages,  and  denominations  does  appear  large. 
But  separate  out  those  who  are  Congregationalists,  and  then  those 
who  are  ready  to  go  in  a  given  year  and  who  prove  to  be  qualified 
on  spiritual,  intellectual,  and  physical  grounds,  and  we  find  this 
source  of  supply  quite  inadequate. 

The  Million-Dollar  Campaign. 

The  demand  for  a  special  campaign  for  a  million  dollars  arose  at 
the  last  meeting  of  the  Board.  In  fact,  it  antedated  the  meeting, 
being  born  of  much  prayer  and  thought  on  the  part  of  the  passen- 
gers upon  the  American  Board  special  train  to  Seattle.  Sub- 
scriptions on  the  train  and  at  the  meeting  for  extra  gifts  amounted 
to  twenty-five  thousand  dollars.  At  a  conference  of  the  secre- 
taries and  workers  connected  with  the  Home  Department  in 
October,  extensive  plans  were  laid  for  an  educational  and  financial 
canvass  of  the  denomination.  With  slight  modifications  from 
time  to  time,  the  plans  were  carried  through  in  the  period  from 
January  22  to  April  12.  Fifty  cities  were  selected  for  all-day 
meetings.  Emphasis  was  placed  upon  reaching  the  men  of  our 
churches,  and  the  meetings  ordinarily  closed  with  a  supper  for  men 
exclusively.  Feeling  the  need  of  some  missionary  speaker  of  more 
than  usual  distinction,  Dr.  Arthur  H.  Smith,  of  China,  wras  sent 
for.  All  the  available  missionaries  on  furlough  were  utilized. 
The  president  and  all  the  officers  of  the  Board,  together  with 
prominent  pastors  and  laymen,  gladly  contributed  their  services. 

As  the  campaign  proceeded,  additional  cities  were  included,  and 
three  companies  of  speakers  worked  simultaneously.  Considera- 
ble use  was  made  of  advertising  matter  in  the  denominational 


16  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

papers,  and  this  was  continued  through  the  year  and  found  to 
be  of  great  value.  Emphasis  was  placed  on  the  spiritual  appeal 
rather  than  upon  the  financial.  A  Prayer  Union  was  organized 
among  our  friends  at  home  and  abroad,  and  the  morning  session  in 
each  city  was  devoted  largely  to  prayer.  A  policy  of  absolute 
frankness  in  regard  to  the  affairs  of  the  Board  was  adopted,  and 
our  constituency  were  made  aware  of  all  our  problems  and  needs. 
Too  much  cannot  be  said  in  recognition  of  the  services  of  our 
missionaries  in  this  series  of  meetings,  and  as  for  Dr.  Arthur  H. 
Smith,  his  coming  proved  clearly  providential  in  many  ways.  The 
testimonies  of  these  men,  always  of  value  when  given  separately, 
were  greatly  increased  in  power  through  the  massing  of  our  forces 
in  the  larger  Congregational  centers. 

During  the  closing  months  of  the  year  our  appeal  was  directed 
more  to  individuals  than  to  churches.  By  means  of  personal 
letters  and  interviews  thousands  of  our  friends  were  moved  to 
make  special  gifts.  The  response  from  individuals  during  the 
closing  days  was  unprecedented.  Remittances  came  to  us  at  the 
rate  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  per  day.  It  required  eighteen  and 
one-half  pages  of  the  Missionary  Herald  to  acknowledge  the 
receipts  for  the  closing  month  of  the  year,  —  an  unprecedented 
showing. 

The  Support  of  Higher  Educational  Institutions. 

As  the  work  of  the  Board  increases  in  extent  and  comprehen- 
siveness, in  response  to  the  favorable  conditions  abroad,  it  becomes 
evident  that  we  must  secure  a  larger  sum  of  money  than  can 
reasonably  be  expected  from  the  churches  contributing  through 
their  ordinary  channels.  We  are  confident  the  next  few  years  will 
bring  upon  the  field  what  President  King  calls  "  capitalistic 
statesmen  " —  persons  of  large  means  who  will  take  broad  views  of 
education  as  an  international  force  and  a  means  of  building  up 
Christian  institutions  and  Christian  civilization  in  foreign  lands. 
As  America  has  been  enjoying  an  era  of  large  gifts  for  her  colleges 
and  libraries,  we  believe  men  and  women  of  wealth  can  be  found 
who  will  do  a  similar  work  for  the  schools  of  higher  learning  abroad. 
The  opportunity  to  reproduce  for  China,  Turkey,  and  India  the 
work  of  such  institutions  as  Robert  College  at  Constantinople  and 
the  Syrian  Protestant  College  at  Beirut  must  appeal  strongly  to 
the  broad-minded  and  Christian  capitalists  we  see  coming  to  the 
front  in  these  days  of  marvelous  prosperity. 


extracts  from  report  of  home  secretary.         17 

In  Conclusion. 

And  thus  the  record  of  the  year  ends  so  far  as  the  Home  Depart- 
ment is  concerned  —  a  year  containing  some  disappointments  and 
failures,  but  so  many  evidences  of  divine  favor  that  the  note  of 
thankfulness  should  dominate  all  our  song.  "  Jehovah  hath  done 
great  things  for  us;  whereof  we  are  glad."  As  we  meet  on  the 
historic  and  sacred  ground  of  Williamstown,  where  one  hundred 
years  ago  was  the  spiritual  and  hence  the  real  beginning  of  this 
Board,  may  we  not  feel  that  the  God  of  our  fathers  is  with  us  yet, 
that  he  claims  this  organization  as  his  own,  and  that  he  will  inspire 
us  and  use  us  to-day  as  surely  as  he  did  Samuel  J.  Mills  and  his 
companions  when  they  prayed  this  work  into  existence  one  hun- 
dred years  ago.  Others  will  tell  of  the  grand  achievements  of  our 
missionaries  in  many  lands.  But  let  us  who  are  called  to  uphold 
their  hands  and  support  the  work  from  afar,  rejoice  that  we  are 
permitted  to  become  partners  in  such  an  enterprise.  Let  us  here 
dedicate  ourselves  anew  to  the  home  task,  in  the  assurance  that 
the  kingdom  is  one  all  over  the  earth,  and  that  whether  far  or  near 
we  all  may  be  fellow-workers  with  Christ  in  the  sublime  enterprise 
of  winning  the  world  to  God. 


18  tup:  haystack  centennial 


EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  REPORT  OF  THE  FOREIGN 
SECRETARY,  REV.  J.  L.  BARTON,  D.D. 

Political  Outlook  and  Changes. 

While  our  missions  in  no  measure  represent  a  political  move- 
ment, it  is  equally  certain  that  political  conditions  and  changes 
necessarily  affect  the  progress  of  missionary  work.  The  possession 
by  the  United  States  of  the  Philippine  Islands  opened  the  door 
for  direct  missionary  operations  in  the  new  possession,  and  eight 
million  people  became  at  once  accessible  to  the  gospel.  It  requires 
no  argument  to  demonstrate  that  political  changes  produce  and 
demand  in  every  land  corresponding  changes  in  missionary  opera- 
tions. 

During  the  year  under  review  there  have  occurred  movements 
among  the  nations  that  are  significant,  and  which  must  be  duly 
cmsidered  in  order  to  a  clear  grasp  of  the  year's  missionary  opera- 
tions. 

The  first  we  will  mention  centers  in  the  near  East  and  affects 
our  Turkish  missions  as  well  as  the  work  in  Bohemia.  I  refer  to 
the  unusual  hostility  in  Turkey  to  educational  and  literary  effort, 
to  the  movement  in  Persia  toward  a  constitutional  government, 
and  to  the  proclamation  issued  by  the  czar  of  Russia  on  Easter 
Day,  1905,  granting  religious  liberty  to  all  the  subjects  of  his 
empire. 

It  is  well  known  that  for  some  cause,  or  for  a  combination  of 
reasons,  the  demands  made  by  our  government  some  three  years 
ago,  that  American  educational  and  eleemosynary  institutions  in 
Turkey  should  be  granted  the  same  rights,  immunities,  and  privi- 
leges already  granted  to  similar  institutions  of  France,  Russia, 
Germany,  and  England,  have  been  persistently  declined  by  the 
sultan.  Apparently  the  Turkish  government  has  found  much  to 
encourage  it  in  the  failure  of  our  government  to  enforce  its 
demands.  Aggressive  measures  have  been  taken  by  Turkey 
during  the  year  to  prevent  the  erection  of  new  school  and  hospital 
buildings.  The  raising,  by  vote  of  Congress,  of  our  legation  at 
Constantinople  to  the  rank  of  an  embassy  has  not  as  yet  changed 
these  conditions. 

The  movement  in  Persia  as  well  as  in  Russia  towards  a  consti- 
tutional and  representative  form  of  government  cannot  fail  to  have 


EXTRACTS    FROM    REPORT    OF    FOREIGN    SECRETARY.  19 

an  influence  upon  the  more  progressive  and  loyal  subjects  of  the 
sultan.  In  the  most  conservative  centers  of  the  nearest  East  there 
is  a  spirit  of  progress  at  work  which  it  will  be  difficult,  if  not 
impossible,  to  suppress. 

Four  of  the  missions  of  this  Board  are  more  or  less  closely  related 
to  Russia.  Our  Western  and  Eastern  Turkey  Missions  extend 
along  the  entire  southern  border  of  Russia  from  Persia  to  Constan- 
tinople. Our  European  Turkey  Mission,  with  a  strong  work  in 
Bulgaria,  comes  into  close  relation  with  Russia,  since  the  influence 
of  the  Slav  is  supreme  in  the  new  kingdom  of  Bulgaria.  Our 
mission  in  Austria  already  has  a  work  started  in  Poland.  The 
Eastern  Turkey  Mission  has  had  for  a  generation  considerable 
mission  work  in  the  Causasus,  which,  for  more  than  twenty-five 
years,  has  been  entirely  under  Russian  domination. 

Genuine  religious  liberty  in  Russia  for  all  of  her  one  hundred  and 
forty  million  subjects  would  open  to  the  American  Board  one  of 
the  largest  doors  of  opportunity  ever  opened  at  one  time  to  any 
organization.  Apart  from  the  American  Baptist  Missionary 
Union,  no  other  missionary  organization  is  so  strategically  situ- 
ated for  an  immediate  advance,  and  the  front  presented  by  our 
own  Board  is  far  more  extended  than  that  of  our  Baptist  co- 
workers. The  Western  Turkey  Mission  this  year  in  its  annual 
meeting  passed  an  urgent  resolution  expressing  its  recognition 
of  the  great  and  effectual  door  of  opportunity  opening  at  the 
north. 

The  most  serious  political  conditions  faced  today  by  any  of 
our  missions  are  to  be  found  in  South  Africa,  where  the  "  Ethio- 
pian Movement,"  in  connection  with  some  new  laws  increasing 
taxation,  has  stirred  up  the  native  Zulus,  alarmed  the  English 
officials,  and  led  to  not  a  little  bloodshed.  The  Zulu  race  in  its 
development  is  exhibiting  many  elements  of  strength.  The  laws 
of  the  country,  for  whatever  reason,  do  not  recognize  the  educated 
and  industrious  Zulu  as  possessing  rights  equal  to  those  freely 
accorded  the  white  race.  Stirred  up  by  adventurers,  and  aggra- 
vated, it  may  be,  by  measures  resorted  to  by  the  government  to 
repress  the  desire  for  a  greater  degree  of  independence,  companies 
of  rebels  have  been  formed,  who  have  seriously  clashed  with 
government  troops,  resulting  in  much  loss  of  life  and  in  the  looting 
of  two  stations  of  our  Board.  This  has  made  some  local  officials 
suspicious  of  any  educational  work  for  these  people,  and  more 
especially  are  they  unfavorable  to  a  form  of  church  organization 


20  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

that  puts  to  the  front  the  trained  native  pastor,  and  that  aims  at 
the  organization  of  native  churches  that  shall  be  self-supporting 
and  self-directing.  It  is  expected  that  out  of  this  conflict  will 
come  a  better  understanding  and  a  wider  opportunity.  The  effect 
of  this  movement  extends  into  the  East  Central  Africa  Mission, 
where  we  are  reaching  a  similar  race  and  where  the  leading  native 
helpers  were  trained  in  South  Africa. 

The  situation  in  Japan  remains  about  the  same  that  it  was  one 
year  ago,  except  that  to  a  fuller  degree  Christianity  is  recognized 
as  one  of  the  religions  of  the  empire,  possessing  equal  rights  and 
privileges  with  the  native  religions.  Japan  is  most  carefully  study- 
ing the  religious  history  of  the  leading  nations  of  the  West,  and 
learning  well  the  lesson  that  religious  intolerance  characterizes 
the  weaker  nations,  while  full  religious  liberty  is  always  conceded 
by  the  strong  nations.  Japanese  supremacy  in  Korea,  Manchuria, 
and  China  has  emphasized  again  the  importance  of  making  Japan 
Christian,  not  only  for  her  own  sake,  but  also  because  of  her 
influence  upon  the  continent.  All  reports  show  how  this  influence 
is  increasing,  not  only  in  political  circles,  but  in  educational, 
commercial,  and  social  directions  as  well.  If  Japan  were  a 
Christian  nation  today,  the  problem  of  Christianizing  the  four 
hundred  millions  who  occupy  the  compact  territory  upon  the 
continent  just  across  the  narrow  sea  would  be  greatly  simplified. 

In  China  the  situation,  while  practically  unchanged  so  far  as 
the  relations  of  the  empire  to  outside  nations  are  concerned,  has 
materially  changed  during  the  year.  The  great  number  of 
students  who  have  gone  to  Japan,  as  well  as  to  our  own  country, 
call  to  mind  the  early  days  of  Japan's  advance  from  ancient  con- 
servatism towards  modern  civilization.  To  this  student  move- 
ment towards  the  West  is  to  be  added  the  significant  world  tour 
of  the  Imperial  High  Commissioners,  sent  by  the  way  of  the 
United  States  to  look  into  conditions  of  commerce,  manufacture, 
education,  and  religion.  Much  will  depend  upon  the  report  carried 
back  by  this  commission.  Considering  the  character  and  ability 
of  the  men  sent,  there  can  be  no  question  that  the  outcome  of  the 
expedition  will  be  most  valuable  to  China. 

In  the  meantime,  the  old  examinations  for  official  appointment 
and  promotion,  which  have  been  conducted  almost  from  time 
immemorial  in  the  Confucian  classics,  have,  by  imperial  decree, 
been  done  away  with,  and  examinations  in  modern  science  have 
been  substituted.     This  one  step  alone  constitutes  a  revolution 


EXTRACTS    PROM    REPORT    OF    FOREIGN   SECRETARY.  21 

of  the  widest  sweep  and  significance.  It  creates  at  once  a  uni- 
versal demand  for  schools  in  which  the  English  language  and 
modern  sciences  are  taught.  It  means  the  breaking  away  of  the 
Chinese  from  a  custom  that  originated  in  conservatism  and  fostered 
exclusion,  adopting  in  its  place  a  custom  that  necessarily  must 
array  that  country  with  the  progressive  nations  of  the  world. 
Politically  the  attitude  of  China  as  represented  by  her  officials  is 
rapidly  changing,  and  there  is  even  a  danger  that  China  may  move 
too  rapidly  and  too  far  in  her  official  recognition  of  Christianity. 

On  the  last  of  July  of  this  year  an  imperial  decree  was  issued 
promising  sweeping  changes  in  the  laws  of  the  empire,  amounting 
virtually  to  a  promise  of  a  constitutional  form  of  government. 
We  cannot  expect  so  rapid  a  change  to  be  brought  about  at  once, 
but  there  can  be  no  question  that  China  is  today  facing  in  that 
direction.  Her  attitude  towards  Western  civilization  exhibits  a 
decided  change. 

Cooperation. 

Two  significant  movements  toward  substantial  and  effective 
cooperation  with  the  Germans  in  mission  work  have  been  put  into 
operation  during  the  year.  These  are  in  Turkey  and  in  Micronesia. 
Soon  after  the  Armenian  massacres  German  friends  became  more 
interested  in  the  efforts  of  our  missionaries  to  care  for  the  many 
orphans  left  destitute.  Money  was  raised  in  Germany  and  sent 
to  our  missionaries  in  Harpoot,  Van,  Marash,  and  other  places  for 
that  purpose.  When  the  task  of  caring  for  these  orphans  became 
too  heavy  for  our  missionaries  to  bear  alone,  German  assistants 
were  sent  out,  in  some  cases,  to  cooperate.  Cordial  relations  upon 
the  field  were  established  between  our  missionaries  and  the  Ger- 
man workers.  Out  of  this  has  grown  an  agreement,  entered  into 
this  year,  by  which  it  is  expected  the  Deutsches  Hulfsbund  will 
send  into  different  parts  of  Turkey  carefully  selected  German 
missionaries  to  cooperate  with  our  forces  in  aggressive  evangelistic, 
educational,  and  medical  work. 

The  other  movement  in  this  direction  is  that  of  the  National 
Young  People's  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor  Union  of  Germany, 
which  has  already  sent,  at  its  own  charges,  three  trained  and 
consecrated  German  men  to  cooperate  as  assistants  with  our 
missionaries  in  the  Caroline  and  Marshall  islands.  Another  man 
is  expected  to  be  upon  the  way  in  a  few  months.  This  method  of 
cooperation  promises  to  meet  fully  the  demands  of  the  German 


22  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

government  in  the  islands  regarding  the  use  of  the  German 
language,  while  it  is  arousing  a  new  interest  among  the  Protes- 
tants of  Germany  in  the  Christian  movement  there.  It  is  expected 
that  the  German  organization  will  provide  funds  for  the  support 
both  of  the  missionaries  they  send  out  and  the  direct  native  work 
under  their  care. 

In  the  North  China  Mission  cooperation  with  the  London 
Missionary  Society  and  the  Presbyterians  in  higher  educational 
work,  entered  into  since  the  Boxer  uprising,  is  most  satisfactory. 
Plans  for  a  combination  with  the  United  Brethren  and  the  London 
Missionary  Society  at  Canton  are  under  consideration,  while  in 
Foochow  an  interdenominational  arrangement  in  theological 
training  is  contemplated.  In  the  Marathi  Mission,  India,  the 
Roha  field  oi  the  Bombay  station  has  been  passed  to  the  care  of 
the  United  Free  Church  Mission,  and  a  part  of  the  Rahuri  station 
is  passing  to  the  care  of  other  boards  better  situated  to  care  for 
the  people  for  whom  we  are  unable  to  provide.  In  Southern  India 
the  London  Missionary  Society  Mission  and  the  Arcot  Mission  of 
the  Reformed  Church  of  America  have  organized  a  form  of  church 
federation  with  our  Madura  Mission,  and  in  Japan  the  United 
Brethren,  Methodist  Protestants,  and  our  own  mission  are  drawing 
together  in  closer  fellowship  and  cooperation. 

All  of  these  movements  are  in  the  interests  of  enhanced  efficiency 
and  power  and  greater  economy  of  men  and  money. 

Turkey. 
» 

Under  this  head  we  include  four  of  the  strong  missions  of  this 

Board,  including  all  the  work  carried  on  by  us  in  Asia  Minor, 
Armenia,  Northern  Syria,  Mesopotamia,  Macedonia,  and  Bulgaria. 
This  constitutes  a  group  of  missions  well  established,  supported 
in  Turkey  itself  by  139  evangelical  churches,  which  have  a  native 
membership  of  16,099.  Not  a  few  of  these  churches  are  strong  in 
numbers  and  support  their  own  work  without  asking  aid  from 
the  Board. 

These  four  missions,  owing  to  the  needs  and  conditions  of  the 
country,  have  felt  the  necessity  of  emphasizing  educational  work. 
There  are  theological  seminaries  at  Marsovan,  Harpoot,  and 
Marash.  Until  there  are  changes  in  the  laws  of  Turkey,  these 
three  cannot  be  combined.  These  theological  schools  are  wholly 
unable  to  prepare  men  in  numbers  sufficient  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  churches  and  of  the  evangelistic  work.     No  part  of  the  work  in 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REPORT  OF  FOREIGN  SECRETARY.     23 

Turkey  is  so  fruitful  in  permanenl  and  self-perpetuating  results, 
none  deserves  more  to  be  pushed  with  new  and  increasing 
vigor. 

The  collegiate  institutions  -Anatolia  College  at  Marsovan, 
Euphrates  College  at  Harpoot,  Central  Turkey  College  at  Aintab, 
St.  Paul's  Institute  at  Tarsus,  International  College  at  Smyrna, 
American  College  for  Girls  at  Constantinople,  Central  Turkey 
College  for  Girls  at  Marash,  and  the  Collegiate  and  Theological 
Institute  at  Samokov,  Bulgaria  —  all  are  crowded  and  over- 
crowded with  students,  and  need  funds  for  scholarships,  enlarge- 
ment, and  running  expenses.  Turkey  needs  Christian  leaders, 
and  these  institutions  are  training  them.  They  ought  to  have 
the  most  liberal  support.  All  of  the  educational  work  is  most 
prosperous,  in  that  students  and  pupils  abound  and  the  people  pay 
liberally  for  these  privileges.  The  fine  girls'  school  building  at 
Aintab  was  burned  in  the  spring  and  is  now  practically  rebuilt. 

One  of  the  leading  Protestant  churches  in  Constantinople  now 
has  as  its  efficient  pastor  a  son  of  one  of  the  most  able  Armenian 
pastors  of  the  past  generation.  This  pastor,  Rev.  Arshag  Shmav- 
onian,  is  a  graduate  of  Robert  College  and  of  Hartford  Seminary, 
resigning  a  pastorate  in  this  country  to  accept  the  call  to  succeed 
his  father  in  that  important  metropolitan  church.  When  the  laws 
and  practices  of  Turkey  will  permit  them  so  to  do,  there  are  many 
able  and  consecrated  Armenians  now  in  America  who  will  eagerly 
return  to  work  for  their  people.  Many  of  these  are  well  able  to 
command  important  positions  as  pastors,  evangelists,  teachers, 
physicians,  etc.  Many  of  the  Armenians  in  this  country  are 
contributing  most  liberally  for  the  support  of  medical,  educational, 
and  evangelistic  work  among  their  people  in  Turkey. 

India  and  Ceylon. 

Our  three  missions  in  these  countries  include  two  of  the  oldest 
missions  of  the  Board. ,  We  have  a  distinct  field  assigned  to  us 
by  common  consent,  in  which  dwell  some  seven  millions  of  people. 
These  look  to  our  missionaries  and  to  this  Board  for  their  Christian 
teaching  and  general  enlightenment. 

We  have  established  among  these  two  distinct  races,  the 
Marathis  and  the  Tamils,  all  phases  of  Christian  work.  In  no 
country  have  we  a  clearer  or  more  complete  exhibit  of  evangelistic, 
educational,  medical,  literary,  and  industrial  work  than  appears  in 


24  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

these  three  missions.  Our  eighty-three  missionaries  reside  at 
twenty-one  different  centers,  including  the  largest  and  most 
important  towns  in  their  districts.  Outside  of  these  station 
centers  there  are  nearly  one  thousand  different  places  occupied 
by  some  mission  institution,  like  a  church  or  preaching  place  or 
school,  or,  in  a  few  cases,  by  only  a  group  of  Christians,  exerting 
their  influence  for  Christ.  This  vast  and  varied  work,  covering 
great  areas  of  country,  was  looked  after  in  detail  last  year  by  a 
trained  Christian  native  force  numbering  one  thousand  four  hun- 
dred and  eighty-one  men  and  women.  Many  of  these  are  men  of 
liberal  education  and  widely  recognized  ability.  All  have  been 
trained  for  this  work  in  mission  institutions,  and  to  the  work  they 
give  their  entire  time  and  strength.  For  every  male  American 
missionary  connected  with  these  three  missions  there  are,  upon  an 
average,  forty-three  trained  native  Christian  workers.  This  fact 
clearly  shows  the  policy  of  these  missions  as  regards  the  training 
and  employment  of  a  native  agency. 

The  economic  and  industrial  conditions  in  India  have  compelled 
our  missions  to  introduce  into  their  educational  system  many 
forms  of  industrial  training.  It  is  found  that,  for  the  youth  of 
that  country,  some  form  of  industrial  training  is  calculated  to  do 
more  toward  the  awakening  of  the  intellect  and  the  development 
of  character  than  the  ordinary  educational  course  alone.  Our 
missions  as  well  as  the  government  are  practically  agreed  that 
some  form  of  industrial  training  has  a  large  place  in  the  best 
educational  systems  for  India.  We  have  this  line  of  work  well 
developed  at  Bombay,  Ahmednagar,  Sirur,  Sholapur,  and  in 
Ceylon,  while  plans  for  the  same  work  in  connection  with  the 
college  at  Madura  are  maturing.  The  famines  have  compelled 
our  missions  to  provide  for  large  numbers  of  orphans,  and  this  has 
necessitated  industrial  operations  as  a  means  of  support,  while 
incidentally  they  have  taught  independence  and  self-reliance.  It 
has  been  demonstrated  that  the  student  who  engages  in  some 
industrial  training  exercises  each  day  makes  more  substantial  and 
rapid  progress  in  his  regular  studies  than  do  those  who  do  not  work 
with  their  hands. 

China. 

It  is  difficult  to  speak  calmly  of  China  as  a  mission  field.  One 
scarcely  knows  where  to  begin,  and  whatever  is  said  upon  the 
subject  is  liable  to  become  ancient  information  before  the  state- 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REPORT  OF  FOREIGN  SECRETARY.     25 

ment  can  be  delivered  from  the  press.  China  has  begun  to  move, 
and  we  have  every  reason  to  expect  continuous  and  accelerated 
motion.  An  intellectual  revolution  is  taking  place,  and  from  this 
as  a  starting  point,  what  may  we  not  expect,  since  China's  weak- 
ness in  the  past  has  been  her  self-satisfaction  and  intellectual 
paralysis? 

With  this  mental  awakening  has  come  a  new  conception  of 
religion,  and  a  tolerant,  not  to  say  intellectual,  recognition  of 
Christianity  that  promises  boundless  possibilities  in  the  near 
future.  Educated  Chinese  are  reading  Herbert  Spencer,  and 
modern  science  is  exalted  above  the  classics  of  Confucius.  Over 
eleven  thousand  Chinese  students  are  studying  in  Japan,  and  the 
stream  of  picked  young  students  from  that  country  is  already 
turned  across  the  Pacific  to  our  own  shores. 

The  leading  viceroy  of  the  empire  has  already  established  more 
than  five  thousand  schools  of  primary  and  secondary  grade  in  the 
Chihli  province,  in  order  to  prepare  the  young  men  of  that  province 
for  the  new  government  courses.  In  most  of  these  schools  West- 
ern learning  and  the  English  language  have  a  place.  The  rapid 
increase  in  the  number  of  newspapers  is  significant.  In  Tientsin 
four  years  ago  only  three  newspapers  were  published,  while  to-day 
there  are  twenty-three.  Whoever  can  prove  himself  able  to 
render  China,  at  this  time,  real  assistance  in  her  great  forward 
movement  will  find  a  welcome  there. 

What  is  more  interesting  to  us  is  the  fact  that  this  awakening 
is  not  anti-Christian.  The  making  of  the  Christian  Sabbath  an 
official  rest  day  has  its  significance,  although  not  in  itself  an  expres- 
sion of  approval  of  our  religion.  An  imperial  decree  has  been 
recently  issued  exhorting  parents  to  refrain  from  binding  the  feet 
of  their  daughters,  emphasized  by  the  declaration  that  men  who 
wish  to  hold  office  in  the  empire  must  not  have  wives  or  daughters 
with  bound  feet.  This  last  decree  has  not  yet  been  made  oper- 
ative, yet  many  officials  are  shaping  their  lives  accordingly. 
Another  recent  decree  most  emphatic  in  its  character  has  been 
directed  against  the  use  of  opium.  Is  there  a  so-called  Christian 
nation  on  earth  that  will  dare  lift  its  arm  against  the  carrying  out 
of  that  decree  by  the  government  of  China? 

A  more  significant  fact  in  the  face  of  present  conditions  is  that 
Yuan  Shih  Kai,  who  for  some  time  has  been  recognized  as  the 
most  powerful  official  in  China,  the  viceroy  of  the  capital  province, 
has  become  the  champion  of  modern  advance  almost  unparalleled 


26  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

in  the  history  of  China,  in  addition  to  his  general  works  of 
reform,  he  has  recently  published  two  significant  books.  One, 
"  A  Text-Book  on  Patriotism,"  deals  with  this  subject  largely 
from  a  Western  standpoint,  showing  the  necessity  of  radical  politi- 
cal, intellectual,  and  moral  changes  in  China  in  order  to  maintain 
herself  as  a  nation.  The  second  book  is,  if  possible,  more  signifi- 
cant still.  This  is  upon  the  subject  of  "  Christianity  in  China." 
In  the  eight  chapters  of  the  book  the  learned  and  influential  vice- 
roy discusses  the  history  of  the  entrance  of  Christianity  into  that 
country  with  tolerable  accuracy,  and,  what  is  most  significant  of 
all,  with  unconcealed  sympathy.  Emphasis  is  laid  upon  the  non- 
political  and  non-judicial  character  of  the  missionaries  and  their 
work,  and  the  toleration  to  be  granted  to  converts  and  their 
exemption  from  the  payment  of  fees  for  idolatrous  purposes. 
An  entire  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  treatment  which  should  be 
accorded  Christian  missionaries,  declaring  that  they  should  be 
treated  with  all  the  courtesy  and  decorum  of  civilized  etiquette. 
The  author  dwells  upon  the  fact  that  missionaries  have  come  to 
China  to  persuade  men  to  the  practice  of  virtues,  and,  therefore,  are 
entitled  to  great  respect.  In  the  chapter  upon  "  Christian  Prin- 
ciples "  the  words  of  Jesus  are  taken  as  the  common  basis  for  the 
Christian  system,  and  many  quotations  are  made  from  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  with  unreserved  approval.  The  significance  of  a 
work  like  this  for  breaking  down  barriers  and  opening  hitherto 
closed  doors,  from  the  pen  of  one  of  the  most,  if  not  the  most, 
influential  official  in  the  empire,  cannot  be  estimated.  It  is  issued 
in  the  Chinese  language,  and  apparently  was  not  intended  for 
foreign  readers. 

We  will  mention  only  two  more  significant  movements  of  this 
nature,  although  many  more  might  be  given.  Chang-Chih-tung, 
viceroy  of  the  provinces  of  Hupeh  and  Hunan,  has  recently  issued 
a  decree  that  the  New  Testament  be  introduced  into  all  the  schools 
of  those  two  provinces,  which  have  a  population  of  fifty-eight 
millions,  two  thirds  that  of  the  United  States.  The  superintendent 
of  education  for  the  province  of  Fukien,  one  of  the  strongest  centers 
for  education  in  the  empire,  who  takes  the  place  of  the  literary 
chancellor  in  the  old  system  of  education,  has  expressed  his  desire 
that  the  mission  colleges  at  Foochow  should  be  brought  into  such 
relations  with  the  government  that  it  might  have  some  share  in 
the  educating  and  civilizing  work  these  institutions  are  doing  for 
the  youth  of  that  great  province.     The  local  Chinese  papers  have 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REPORT  OF  FOREIGN  SECRETARY.     27 

reported  that  the  government  is  ready  to  grant  graduates  of  these 
colleges  full  recognition. 

These  isolated  facts  are  sufficient  to  demonstrate  that  great 
changes  are  taking  place  in  China  and  that  the  movement  is 
favorable  to  the  propagation  of  Christianity  there.  We  can  go 
even  further  than  this  and  say  that  the  movement  demands  the 
Christian  missionary,  the  Christian  school,  and  Christian  literature, 
and  that  every  possible  Christian  influence  in  increased  propor- 
tions be  provided  at  once  for  that  great  empire. 

We  have  four  distinct  and  well-established  missions  in  China. 
These  extend  from  Canton  and  Hongkong  on  the  south  to  Peking 
and  Kalgan  upon  the  great  wall  on  the  north,  and  inland  to  the 
province  of  Shansi,  with  a  strong  center  at  Foochow  and  in  Sha- 
owu,  nearly  three  weeks'  journey  to  the  west  of  that  important 
city.  The  North  China  and  Shansi  missions,  swept  by  destruc- 
tion and  massacre  in  1900,  are  again  reestablished  and  ready  for 
aggressive  work. 

We  have  in  these  four  missions  a  force  of  109  American  mission- 
aries, located  in  16  stations  and  including  several  of  the 
largest  and  most  important  cities  of  the  empire.  Through  573 
native  agents,  some  of  them  able  Chinese  pastors,  we  are  also 
carrying  on  work  in  226  other  places,  each  one  of  which  is  a 
center  for  Christian  light  and  influence.  There  has  never  been  a 
time  when  the  China  missions  were  calling  so  loudly  for  reinforce- 
ments as  they  call  to-day.  Two  important  stations  in  the  North 
China  Mission  are  left  almost  alone,  when  the  number  of  inquirers 
was  never  so  many  as  now.  It  is  the  calm  judgment  of  the  North 
China,  the  Shansi,  and  the  Foochow  missions  that  the  number  of 
missionaries  now  upon  the  field  should  be  increased  at  once  by 
from  twenty-five  to  fifty  per  cent  in  order  to  do  justice  to  the 
special  providences  of  the  hour  and  to  prevent  the  present  mis- 
sionary force  from  breaking  down  with  overwork.  The  demand 
is  equally  strong  for  increased  funds  to  permit  the  missions  to 
train  the  Chinese  Christian  young  men  and  women  for  important 
positions  in  the  new  advance  movement.  The  immediate  call  in 
China  is  to  train  the  Chinese  youth  for  positions  of  trust  and  leader- 
ship in  the  great  Christian  commonwealth  now  emerging. 

Japan. 

The  events  of  the  year  have  emphasized  anew  the  importance  of 
our  mission  to  Japan.     They  have  also  demonstrated,  in  a   most 


28  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

remarkable  manner,  the  wisdom  of  the  policy  of  our  Board  in 
inaugurating  from  the  first  self-supporting  and  self-directing  and 
self-propagating  churches  and  educational  institutions.  If  success 
in  mission  work  is  measured  by  the  number  of  churches  controlled 
by  the  home  Board  and  the  home  churches,  then  we  have  not 
much  of  which  to  boast  in  Japan.  But  if  we  measure  the  depth, 
power,  and  permanency  of  the  work  accomplished  by  the  number 
of  native  churches  that  have  reached  such  a  degree  of  strength 
that  they  are  able  to  support  their  own  pastors,  care  for  their  own 
affairs,  propagate  missions,  and  carry  on,  without  foreign  assist- 
ance, all  the  functions  of  the  Christian  Church,  then  we  have  a 
right  to  point  to  this  island  mission  with  enthusiasm.  From  the 
first  the  Board  has  never  sought  to  retain  control  of  any  form  of 
Christian  work  in  the  mission  field  that  the  people  themselves  were 
able  to  support  and  direct.  We  have  always  deemed  it  to  be  the 
principal  aim  of  all  of  our  work,  and  the  goal  to  which  all  effort 
was  to  aim,  to  establish  upon  well-laid  foundations  all  forms  of 
Christian  institutions,  and  at  the  same  time  raise  up  a  native  con- 
stituency trained  to  assume  at  as  early  a  date  as  possible  the 
direction  and  support  of  everything.  We  have  never  attempted 
to  plant  American  churches  in  Japan  or  to  maintain  control  of 
Japanese  churches.  The  Kumi-ai  churches  in  that  empire  which 
have  been  organized  by  our  mission,  and  by  Japanese  Christians 
in  cooperation  with  our  mission,  are  true  churches  of  Jesus  Christ, 
but  they  are  also  Japanese  churches,  both  in  membership  and  in 
control. 

The  Doshisha  has  had  one  of  the  most  prosperous  years  in  its 
history.  Firmly  established  upon  its  Christian  foundation,  recog- 
nized by  the  government  as  a  Christian  school,  and  having  upon 
its  rolls  more  than  seven  hundred  students,  many  of  whom  are 
Christians,  but  a  larger  number  of  whom  have  as  yet  made  no 
profession  of  Christianity,  this  school  of  Neesima  is  in  a  position 
to  do  its  full  share  in  the  Christianization  of  the  empire. 

Kobe  College  for  Girls  has  made  a  marked  advance,  not  only  in 
the  enlargement  of  its  plant,  but  in  adopting  a  new  constitution 
and  is  forming  a  board  of  managers  in  Japan,  upon  which  board 
the  Japanese  are  to  be  represented.  This  college  is  overcrowded 
with  students. 

Our  mission,  numbering  sixty-eight  members,  of  whom  twenty- 
three  are  ordained,  is  in  close  cooperation  with  the  Japanese  in 
evangelistic  operations  and  in  every  form  of  Christian  work.     For 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REPORT  OF  FOREIGN  SECRETARY.     29 

nearly  twenty  years  the  relations  between  our  missionaries  and 
the  Japanese  leaders  have  not  been  so  cordial  as  they  are  at  the 
present  time. 

Cooperation  is  in  the  air  of  Japan  today,  and  the  Christian 
movement  is  solidifying  and  simplifying  itself  for  a  strong,  steady, 
and  determined  advance.  The  student  classes  alone  in  our  own 
and  in  government  institutions  form  a  body  sufficiently  large  and 
full  of  promise  to  command  the  entire  time  and  attention  of  our 
mission.  The  field  is  large,  ready,  and  inviting  for  every  Christian 
effort. 

Africa. 

The  three  missions  in  Africa  have  now  become  two  by  reason 
of  the  East  Africa  Mission  and  the  Zulu  Mission,  through  their 
community  of  interest,  uniting  under  the  name  of  the  American 
Mission  to  South  Africa.  This  mission  is  now  composed  of  the 
Rhodesian  branch  and  the  Zulu  branch.  The  Zulu  branch, 
although  one  thousand  miles  from  the  Rhodesian  branch  to  the 
north,  is  training  the  Zulu  helpers  for  that  field.  More  and  more 
the  Zulu  language  is  reaching  up  along  the  east  coast  of  the  conti- 
nent. The  newly  developed  Beira  station  on  the  coast  is  the 
connecting  link  between  the  two  main  branches.  The  entire 
operations  of  this  mission  are  under  the  British  flag,  except  Beira, 
which  is  subject  to  the  Portuguese  government.  We  again  come 
into  relations  with  this  same  government  in  the  West  Africa  Mis- 
sion, inland  from  Benguella  upon  the  western  coast. 

We  are  compelled  to  report  that  the  British  government  of 
South  Africa  has  caused  the  mission  more  real  anxiety  and  trouble 
than  the  Portuguese  government  at  Beira.  As  reported  one  year 
ago,  the  South  African  government  stands  in  fear  of  the  aggressive 
and  naturally  vigorous  Zulu  people.  The  Zulus  have  readily 
responded  to  the  influence  of  education,  and  have  already  reached 
the  point  where  they  are  taking  note  of  the  discriminations  made 
against  them  in  the  laws  and  practices  of  the  land.  Since  they 
far  outnumber  the  white  populations,  and  also  since  there  is  some- 
thing of  an  Ethiopian  movement  led  by  certain  Zulu  adventurers, 
the  government  has  become  suspicious  of  any  kind  of  mission  work 
that  educates  the  race  and  teaches  them  self-government  in  the 
conduct  of  the  affairs  of  their  churches.  Not  long  since,  James 
Bryce,  in  speaking  of  the  conditions  prevailing  in  South  Africa, 
said:  "  The  government  in  that  colony,  by  its  repressive  and  coer- 


30  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

cive  measures,  is  heaping  up  wrath  against  the  day  of  wrath.  Such 
methods  of  administration  can  lead  only  to  bloodshed."  During 
the  past  year,  under  a  reckless  leader,  there  has  broken  out  within 
the  bounds  of  our  mission  an  incipient  rebellion,  resulting  in  open 
clashes  between  the  troops  and  the  rebels.  The  unarmed  and 
unorganized  Zulus  have  suffered  severely,  and  two  stations  of  our 
Board,  Esidumbini  and  Noodsberg,  have  suffered  great  loss. 
Many  of  our  own  native  Christians  were  compelled  to  go  over  to 
the  insurrectionists  to  save  their  property  and  their  lives,  and 
then,  because  of  the  company  they  were  in,  met  the  severe  punish- 
ment of  the  royal  troops.  A  heavy  blow  has  been  struck  at 
insurrection. 

In  both  branches  of  this  mission  the  work  has  developed  more 
rapidly  than  we  have  been  able  to  send  out  missionaries  to  super- 
intend it.  This  is  the  complaint  made  against  us  by  the  govern- 
ment. They  demand  more  missionary  superintendence,  since 
they  are  willing  to  trust  the  native  organizations  if  some  mission- 
ary is  responsible  for  them,  but  they  do  not  have  confidence  in 
independent  native  institutions  of  any  class. 

Both  branches  of  the  mission  are  strongly  evangelistic.  It  may 
be  stated,  however,  that  the  Zulu  branch  lays  special  emphasis 
upon  the  training  of  a  native  agency,  while  the  Rhodesian  branch, 
two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  the  interior,  places  particular 
emphasis  upon  industrial  work.  Both  branches  are  developing 
medical  work  among  the  natives. 

Pacific  Islands. 

The  year  has  been  a  broken  one  in  the  details  of  the  work.  The 
Morning  Star  has  not  been  in  commission  and  is  now  for  sale. 
The  tornado  of  1905  wrought  havoc  upon  Ponape,  while  depleted 
forces,  with  lack  of  transportation,  have  limited  touring.  In 
spite  of  these  facts  there  have  been  substantial  gains.  Upon 
Nauru  alone  there  are  reported  two  hundred  and  eighty-four 
accessions  to  the  church  this  year,  which  was  eighteen  per  cent  of 
the  entire  population  of  the  island.  The  work  at  Guam  is  yet  in 
its  initial  stage,  as  it  also  is  in  the  Philippines.  Mr.  Black  has  laid 
good  foundations,  and  at  present  the  call  is  imperative  for  rein- 
forcements. Nearly  three  quarters  of  a  million  of  souls  are  looking 
to  our  single  missionary  family  for  gospel  light  and  truth.  A 
Medical  Missionary  Association  has  been  formed  in  New  York  to 
cooperate  with  the  Board  in  opening  and  sustaining  at  Mindanao 


EXTRACTS    FROM    REPORT    OF    FOREIGN    SECRETARY.  31 

a  strong  medical  work,  for  which  there  is  an  imperative  call.  It 
is  hoped  that  a  physician  can  be  sent  out  this  year.  We  are  now 
looking  for  the  man.  While  these  Pacific  islands  possess  no  master 
races  that  will  become  in  the  future  dominant  factors  in  great 
national  questions,  they  do  contain  a  company  of  God's  needy 
children,  hungry  for  the  bread  of  life  and  ready  to  receive  it 
when  brought  by  loving  hands. 

Papal  Lands. 

Our  papal  lands  missions  are  three,  all  begun  in  1872,  but 
widely  separated.  Prague  is  the  headquarters  of  the  Austrian 
Mission,  working  especially  for  the  Bohemians,  Madrid  the  center 
for  the  work  in  Spain,  and  Chihuahua  and  Guadalajara  the  chief 
stations  for  our  work  in  Mexico.  In  none  of  these  are  the  missions 
making  an  attack  upon  the  Catholic  churches.  The  missionaries 
are  preachers  of  righteousness,  and  by  precept  and  example 
attempt  to  interpret  to  the  people  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ. 

It  is  practically  conceded  now,  even  by  the  leaders  among  the 
Catholics,  that  our  missions  and  their  work  are  not  hostile 
to  anything  that  is  good  wTithin  the  national  church.  The  value 
of  the  work  of  these  missionaries  cannot  be  estimated  in  any 
measure  simply  by  the  number  of  those  who  have  become  Protes- 
tant or  by  the  aggregate  of  pupils  in  the  mission  schools.  The 
influence  of  Protestant  missionary  work  in  these  countries  has 
already  penetrated  into  remote  regions  and  appears  in  an  awakened 
intelligence,  an  enlightened  conscience,  and  a  higher  standard  of 
morality.  Many  of  the  gospel  ideas  that  were  savagely  assailed 
a  generation  ago  are  now  advocated  even  by  ecclesiastics  of  the 
old  church. 

In  each  of  these  three  missions  important  building  operations 
are  now  in  progress.  Mexico  is  constructing  a  new  building  for 
the  Colegio  Internacional  at  Guadalajara,  which  provides  Chris- 
tian leaders  for  the  gospel  work  in  that  country.  There  are  not 
sufficient  funds  in  hand  to  complete  the  plan.  In  Madrid  a  com- 
modious new  hall,  a  memorial  to  Mrs.  Alice  Gordon  Gulick,  is 
in  process  of  erection  under  the  supervision  of  the  directors  of 
the  International  Institute  for  Girls.  Funds  are  not  yet  provided 
in  full  for  the  completion  of  this  building.  This  is  the  most 
complete  and  best-equipped  school  in  Spain  for  the  higher  Chris- 
tian education  of  girls.  In  Prague  a  new  Gospel  Hall,  costing 
twenty  thousand  dollars,  is  under  construction,  with  funds  given 


32  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

by  a  friend  of  the  work  in  Scotland.  In  these,  as  in  other  mission 
lands,  a  substantial  building  in  a  great  center  is  of  inestimable 
value  in  localizing  and  housing  the  work,  affording  a  point  of 
departure  and  impressing  the  people  with  the  sense  of  permanence. 

Conclusion. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  vacancies  caused  by  death  and  resigna- 
tion have  not  been  filled,  there  has  been  a  decrease  during  the 
year  in  the  number  of  missionaries  by  13.  There  has  been  an 
increase  in  the  number  of  ordained  native  pastors  from  278  a 
year  ago  to  299,  while  the  native  unordained  preachers  have  risen 
from  595  to  633.  The  total  native  laborers  connected  with  the 
mission  stands  at  4,064. 

The  589  native  churches  have  a  membership  of  66,724,  adding 
to  their  number  during  the  year  under  review  5,134  members  on 
confession  of  their  faith.  There  are  over  70,000  studying  in  the 
Sunday-schools.  There  have  been  13  theological  schools  in  oper- 
ation, reporting  168  students  studying  for  the  ministry.  The  18 
collegiate  institutions  have  nearly  2,000  students  in  the  college 
departments,  with  even  a  larger  number  in  the  lower  grades.  In 
all  departments  and  grades  of  the  educational  work  of  all  our 
missions  there  were  last  year  64,087  pupils  enrolled.  The  76 
hospitals  and  dispensaries  have  treated  during  the  year  over 
300,000  patients. 

One  other  significant  statistical  feature  that  should  be  men- 
tioned is  the  $212,353  contributed  by  the  native  Christians  in 
these  various  mission  fields  for  the  support  of  the  religious  and 
educational   work   among  them   and  for  missionary  enterprises. 

We  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  people,  for  the  most 
part,  who  give  this  large  sum  are  poor,  in  many  instances  in 
desperate  poverty,  and  that  in  all  cases  the  daily  wage  of  the 
givers  was  upon  an  average  only  from  one  fifth  to  one  tenth  of 
the  wage  of  the  same  class  in  our  own  country.  Under  the  most 
conservative  estimate,  this  sum  given  by  the  native  Christians, 
numbering  less  than  seventy  thousand  church  members,  would 
equal  considerably  more  than  a  million  dollars  in  this  country. 

The  Christ  exalted  is  drawing  the  nations  to  himself,  and  at  the 
same  time  he  is  shaping  the  social,  intellectual,  moral,  and  reli- 
gious life  of  all  these  peoples  to  harmonize  with  his  plan  for  the 
redemption  of  the  world. 


rOl   \c    PEOPLE     WD    EDUCATION.  33 


EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  REPORT  OX  THE  DEPARTMENT 

FOR  YOUNG  PEOPLE  AND  EDUCATION. 

Mr.  Harry  W.  Hicks. 

The  secretary  in  charge  wishes  to  report  a  year  of  remarkable 
development,  notwithstanding  a  reduction  of  its  estimated  finan- 
cial requirements  amounting  to  nearly  fifty  per  cent,  and  the 
absorption  of  about  one  fifth  of  the  year  in  work  of  the  Million- 
Dollar  Campaign.  Real  advance  has  been  made  in  every  impor- 
tant respect,  and  the  field  is  rapidly  ripening  for  a  large  harvest  in 
the  form  of  more  candidates,  a  more  intelligent  missionary  leader- 
ship in  the  churches,  more  devoted  prayer  for  the  Board's  work 
and  workers,  and  a  substantial  increase  in  gifts. 

Field  Work. 

The  work  of  the  year  has  been  done  in  thirty-four  states.  About 
t  wo  months  were  given  to  the  Million-Dollar  Campaign  in  nineteen 
cities.  Four  summer  conferences,  four  metropolitan  institutes, 
six  colleges  and  seminaries,  and  several  local  and  state  associations 
have  been  included  in  the  travel  of  the  year.  The  special  feature 
of  the  year  was  two  trips,  of  a  month  each,  to  the  Pacific  coast. 

No  report  of  the  field  work  can  be  made  to  represent  adequately 
the  difficulty  of  undertaking  to  unite  Congregational  young 
people  in  missionary  enterprises.  There  is  no  national,  state,  or 
district  denominational  organization  of  Endeavor  societies  or 
Sunday-schools. 

Moreover,  comparatively  little  attention  as  yet  has  been  given 
by  program  committees  to  the  problems  of  missionary  work  in 
Endeavor  societies  and  Sunday-schools,  in  the  meetings  of 
churches,  in  state  and  local  conferences  and  associations.  It  is 
gratifying  to  note  that  since  the  summer  conferences  of  1906, 
when  this  matter  was  thoroughly  discussed,  several  state  associa- 
tions and  conferences  have  introduced  discussions  on  themes  of 
interest  to  young  people. 

In  view  of  these  facts  it  becomes  plain  that  there  is  great  need 
for  extensive  field  work  on  behalf  of  missions  in  the  Sunday- 
school  and  the  various  grades  of  Endeavor  societies,  having  as 
its  chief  purpose,  instruction  of  officers  and  teachers  on  methods  of 


34 


THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


organization,  mission  stud}',  giving,  and  the  promotion  of  prayer 
for  missions  among  all  ages  of  the  young.  Most  of  the  time  of 
the  district  secretaries  must,  and  should  be,  given  to  enlisting  the 
adult  members  of  the  churches  in  support  of  missions.  The 
problem  of  reaching  and  training  the  young  is  both  financial  and 
educational,  and  must  be  considered  in  the  light  of  the  future  as 
well  as  the  present  constituency  of  the  Board.  It  is,  therefore, 
felt  that  plans  for  enlarging  the  activities  of  the  Home  Department 
should  include  plans  for  a  more  adequate  field  cultivation  of 
Sunday-schools  and  young  people,  and  particularly  the  young- 
men. 

Sale  op  Literature  —  Mission  Study. 

Ten  different  text-books  were  kept  in  stock,  of  which  3,487 
volumes  were  sold.  For  the  two  years  previous,  beginning  with 
1903-4,  text-book  sales  were  1,950  and  2,776,  respectively. 
The  text-book,  "  Daybreak  in  the  Dark  Continent,"  alone  sold  to 
the  number  of  2,719.  One  hundred  and  twenty-nine  sets  of  books 
called  "  Reference  Libraries,"  chiefly  on  Africa,  containing  1,181 
volumes,  were  sold,  as  well  as  101  wall  maps  of  Africa  and  Japan, 
and  506  outline  and  small  colored  maps  of  Africa.  In  addition 
to  the  above,  the  department  has  sold  large  numbers  of  pamphlets, 
leaflets,  and  booklets  on  a  wide  range  of  subjects,  and  has  aimed 
to  supply  every  legitimate  demand  of  the  churches  for  materials 
with  which  to  work. 

Because  of  the  reduced  appropriations  the  campaign  for  mission 
study  suffered  a  serious  setback.  Notwithstanding  the  sudden 
termination  of  effort  to  stimulate  interest  in  systematic  study  and 
the  organization  of  classes,  there  were  190  groups  reported  to  the 
office,  with  2,325  enrolled.  This  must  be  considered  only  as  a 
partial  record  of  facts,  since  it  is  known  that  many  classes  were 
not  reported.  The  following  table  indicates  the  record  for  the 
three  vears  since  this  line  of  cultivation  was  started 


Mission  Study  Classes  and  Literature. 


Year. 

Number  of 
Classes. 

Members 
Enrolled. 

Libraries 
Sold. 

Volumes 
in  Libraries. 

'Wall  Maps 
Sold. 

Text-books 
Sold. 

1903-4     .    . 

Ill 

1,319 

1,950 

1904-5     .    . 

172 

2,478 

70 

657 

108 

2,776 

1905-6     .    . 

190 

2,325 

129 

1,181 

101 

3,487 

STOUNG    PEOPLE    AND    EDUCATION.  35 

It  is  doubtful  if  pastors  and  superintendents  generally  under- 
stand how  stimulating  to  the  spiritual  life  of  young  people  the 
associated  study  of  missions  has  proven.  Nor  can  its  value  as  a 
basis  for  praying  and  giving,  both  now  and  in  the  future,  be  over- 
estimated. The  movement  to  organize  such  classes  must  become 
a  regular  feature  of  the  fall  and  winter  campaign  of  every  church 
before  the  future  of  our  foreign  missions  can  be  called  secure. 
If  possible,  this  phase  of  the  department's  work  should  not  only 
be  reinstated  financially,  but  its  plans  extended  to  include  two 
regular  announcements  to  Endeavor  societies  each  year,  one  to 
pastors,  and  two  to  superintendents,  advertising  plaas  and  litera- 
ture, connecting  study  with  giving  and  praying  and  field  work,  to 
train  leaders  and  organize  Congregational  young  people  in  the 
large  cities  to  undertake  large  things,  for  the  Board's  missions. 

The  Station  Plan. 

This  plan  of  giving  is  appealing  more  and  more  to  leaders  of  the 
young,  for  it  provides  specific  information,  a  living  link  with  the 
field,  and  affords  a  basis  for  united  study  and  prayer.  Rarely  has 
any  person  or  organization  declined  to  choose  this  method  when 
it  was  understood.  The  old  method  of  assigning  a  native  worker 
was  unsatisfactory  because  news  of  him  could  not  be  secured.  By 
the  station  plan  a  superior  educational  basis  is  afforded  for 
instruction  in  the  general  work  of  missions. 

If  the  large  number  of  non-contributing  Endeavor  societies  and 
Sunda)^-schools  are  to  be  enlisted  in  giving,  the  station  plan  depart- 
ment must  be  greatly  strengthened  the  ensuing  year.  The  amount 
of  correspondence  and  clerical  work  entailed  is  large,  but  only  by 
personal  and  discriminating  attention  to  each  non-contributing 
organization  can  its  leaders  be  induced  to  consider  making  an 
offering.  If  the  appropriations  granted  this  department  are 
adequate,  personal  correspondence  with  every  Sunday-school  and 
Endeavor  society  should  be  carried  on  during  the  year,  and  such 
literature  as  is  necessary  to  win  their  financial  cooperation  should 
be  issued.  Maps  and  descriptive  circulars  for  every  station 
opened  should  be  provided,  and  the  necessary  clerical  staff  assigned 
to  the  office  administration.  The  experience  of  the  brief  period 
since  this  plan  was  adopted  in  1903  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
is  capable  of  adaptation  to  all  classes  of  donors  and  organizations 
desiring  definite  knowledge  of  the  work  supported.  The  faithful 
cooperation  of  the  missionaries  who  are  acting  as  station  corre- 


36 


THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


spondents  is  gratefully  acknowledged,  for  without  them  every 
effort  to  satisfy  inquiring  and  thoughtful  leaders  at  home  would 
fail. 

Christian  Endeavor  Societies. 

Interest  in  mission  study  is  growing  apace.  The  number  of 
societies,  however,  as  reported  in  the  Year-Book  still  declines,  the 
loss  this  last  year  being  86,  the  total  number  being  3,421,  as 
contrasted  with  3,507  the  year  before.  Notwithstanding  this 
loss,  the  number  of  societies  contributing  directly  to  the  Board's 
treasury  was  662,  and  the  amount  $11,192,  as  contrasted  with 
663,  and  $9,620  the  year  before.     The  table  tells  the  story: 


Year. 

Number  of 
Societies. 

Number 
Contributing. 

Number 
Non- 
Contributing. 

Amount 
Contributed. 

1900-1  

1901-2  

1902-3  

1903-4  

1904-5  

1905-6  

3,716 
3,723 
3,639 
3,592 
3,507 
3,421 

S12 
694 
664 
611 
663 
662 

2,904 
3,029 
2,975 
2,981 
2,S44 
2,759 

$11,869 

10,861 

9,569 

8,672 

9,620 

11,192 

This  table  does  not  contain  figures  for  the  three  Woman's 
Boards,  which,  during  1905-6,  reported  gifts  of  $8,895  from  848 
Endeavor  societies. 

SlJNDAYr-SCHOOLS. 

Less  has  been  done  by  the  Board  in  times  past  to  stimulate 
giving  among  the  Sunday-schools  than  the  magnitude  and  the 
readiness  of  the  field  have  called  for.  With  the  exception  of 
special  appeals  for  the  Morning  Star  and  an  annual  letter  to 
superintendents  about  the  annual  Foreign  Mission  Day  in  October, 
little  has  been  done.  No  literature  has  hitherto  been  prepared 
by  the  Board  adapted  either  to  leaders  or  scholars  except  that 
required  for  the  single  occasion  in  October.  Here  again  discrimi- 
nating correspondence  will  be  necessary  to  win  the  cooperation 
of  4,882  schools  not  reporting  gifts  to  the  American  Board  during 
1905-6.      ' 

The  remarkable  development  of  the  year  in  thought  and  plans 
for  missionary  instruction  in  Sunday-schools  makes  the  ensuing 


Vol  NG    PEOPLE     WD    EDUCATION.  37 

year  a  favorable  time  to  outline  an  adequate  scheme  of  cultiva- 
tion for  our  own  schools.  This  should  include  wide  advertisement 
of  the  literature  published  by  the  Young  People's  Missionary 
Movement  and  the  preparation  of  pamphlet  literature  for  officers 
and  teachers,  showing  the  best  methods  of  organizing  for  missions 
and  providing  missionary  instruction. 

It  should  also  include  systematic  financial  correspondence,  both 
with  contributing  and  non-contributing  schools.  Special  Sunday- 
school  institutes  for  Congregational  leaders  should  be  held  in  the 
leading  Congregational  cities,  and  much  attention  should  be  given 
to  the  subject  in  conference  and  association  programs,  as  well  as 
state  meetings. 

Young  Men. 

As  a  class  the  young  men  of  the  churches  are  the  "  neglected 
continent."  Only  a  small  proportion  are  more  than  attendants 
on  the  morning  church  service.  Comparatively  few  are  in  the 
church  harness.  Not  more  than  one  fourth  of  those  enrolled  in 
mission  study  are  young  men.  They  are  not  within  the  sphere 
of  religious  activity  of  the  Christian  Endeavor  society  or  the 
Sunday-school.  They  are,  however,  easily  and  permanently 
interested  in  missions  when  once  a  point  of  contact  is  established. 
These  facts  should  be  carefully  weighed,  among  others,  when  the 
policy  of  the  Home  Department  is  outlined,  with  the  purpose  of 
organizing  special  meetings  for  young  men  in  many  centers  this 
year  and  entering  the  field  of  men's  clubs  and  classes  within  the 
churches. 

Student  Cooperation. 

A  larger  proportion  of  young  men  and  women  in  college  are 
Christians  than  in  any  other  class  or  group  of  equal  size.  It 
therefore  follows  that  among  the  Christian  young  people  in  college 
are  those  who  are  best  qualified  to  become  the  missionary  leaders 
of  the  million  young  people  in  the  churches.  How  to  utilize  the 
student  trainedleader  after  graduation  is  an  important  question. 
Can  the  present  "  leakage,"  whereby  strong  Christian  leaders  are 
lost  to  Christian  work  in  the  churches  as  they  graduate,  be  stopped? 
What  would  be  the  effect  of  continuous  cultivation  of  the  colleges 
and  seminaries  upon  the  supply  of  money,  volunteers  for  service, 
and  teachers  of  missions? 

An  answer  to  these  and  other  questions  cannot  fail  to  impress 
friends  of  the  Board  with  the  importance  of  sending  a  representa- 


38  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

tive  of  its  work  to  every  college  and  university  in  which  there  are 
considerable  numbers  of  Congregational  students  at  least  once  in 
two  years,  and  to  every  theological  seminary  once  each  year. 
The  state  universities  and  leading  medical  schools  and  post- 
graduate schools  should  be  included.  For  many  reasons  such  an 
effort  is  necessary.  But  its  bearing  upon  young  people's  work  is 
apparent,  for  the  young  can  lead  the  young  better  than  can  the 
older  members,  if  they  are  trained  in  missionary  work.  What  the 
Student  Volunteer  Movement  does  so  effectively  cannot  take 
the  place  of  denominational  cultivation  of  college  students,  and  the 
work  of  that  organization  should  be  brought  to  a  full  fruitage  by 
completing  it  through  a  carefully  devised  scheme  of  college  visi- 
tation, during  which  Congregational  students  may  learn  about 
Congregational  foreign  missions,  the  standards  and  needs  of  the 
Board,  the  ideals  and  needs  of  the  churches,  and  make  friends 
with  the  secretaries  and  missionaries  of  the  Board,  who  are 
the  representatives  of  the  churches.  Attendance  upon  the 
student  summer  conferences,  both  for  men  and  women,  now  about 
fifteen  in  number,  should  be  a  prominent  feature  of  this  policy. 
The  direct  value  to  the  Board  of  such  contact  is  not  the  least 
consideration. 


THE    RISING    TIDE.  o'J 


THE  RISING  TIDE. 

Rev.  William  S.  Dodd,  M.D., 
Of  the  Western  Turkey  Mixtion. 

l.\  the  Western  Turkey  Mission  there  is  a  rising  tide  of  spirit- 
uality. 1  am  not  saying  that  there  is  a  great  wave  of  revival 
sweeping  over  the  field.  There  is  no  such  thing.  I  am  not 
saying  that  the  standard  of  spirituality  has  attained  a  very  lofty 
degree.  It  has  not.  But  it  is  not  a  falling  tide,  and  it  is  not 
low  tide.  It  is  rising.  And  I  have  not  to  look  back  twenty  years 
or  ten  years  to  see  the  difference;  five,  yes,  three  years  is  enough. 
When  I  recall  the  state  of  our  churches  and  congregations  a  few 
years  ago,  almost  without  exception  I  would  describe  it  as  cold. 
There -were  some,  as  Ak  Serai,  to  visit  which  brought  a  warm 
feeling  to  our  hearts.  There  were  places  where,  by  contrast,  we 
were  cheered  because  they  did  not  have  a  church  quarrel  on  hand, 
or  had  settled  the  quarrel  of  the  preceding  year.  There  were 
places  where  instances  of  persecution  faithfully  endured  made  a 
brightness  that  attracted  our  eyes.  There  were  individuals 
everywhere  whose  simple,  consistent,  earnest  lives  made  us  feel 
the  blessedness  of  Christian  fellowship.  But.  taking  the  situation 
all  through,  piety  was  at  a  low  grade. 

Even  then  progress  was  being  made,  but  it  was  slow,  and  while 
foundations  were  being  laid,  too  often  they  were  torn  up  and  had 
to  be  relaid.  There  is  no  more  notable  instance  of  this  than  the 
town  of  Urgub.  There  was  a  Protestant  community  there  among 
the  Greeks;  there  was  a  teacher  of  some  ability;  it  was  one  of  our 
regular  outstations.  But  the  teacher  proved  unfaithful,  had  to 
be  dropped;  the  congregation  melted  away;  the  teacher  seized  the 
little  chapel  whose  title  he  himself  held  (by  Turkish  law,  you 
know,  property  had  to  be  held  in  the  name  of  an  individual,  and 
that  an  Ottoman  subject),  and  he  claimed  the  property  as  his 
personal  possession.  Evangelical  work  seemed  to  be  absolutely 
wiped  out.  But  later  a  little  company  of  men  in  the  Greek  Church 
began  reading  their  Bibles,  increased  in  numbers  and  influence 
until  the  orthodox  church  excommunicated  them,  and  a  new 
Protestant  community  was  established,  made  up  of  those  who 
had  endured  the  fire  of  persecution,  who  loved  and  lived  the 


40  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

Bible,  who  had  a  new  and  different  spirit;  and  two  of  the  old 
former  Protestants  who  crept  back  into  the  fold  were  regarded  as 
the  least  worthy  of  all  that  little  flock.  The  influence  of  this 
community  has  been  a  strong  element  in  bringing  about  the 
changed  conditions  of  these  later  years  of  which  I  am  speaking. 

The  most  potent  visible  influence  has  been  the  Aintab  revival 
of  three  and  four  years  ago.  What  the  final  results  of  that  have 
been,  there  in  Aintab,  I  would  leave  for  those  from  the  Central 
Mission  to  say.  I  do  not  know.  But  certain  it  is  that  we  have 
received  a  blessing  from  it.  Men  converted  there  came  to  our 
field;  letters  from  there  went  to  many  of  our  towns.  Simply  to 
hear  what  the  Lord  had  done  there  quickened  the  consciences, 
stirred  the  desires  and  hopes,  and  enabled  people  to  believe  that 
we  could  have  something  of  the  same  also.  The  soul-stirring 
news  from  Wales  was  also  eagerly  read  and  sought  for,  but  this 
was  after  the  appetite  had  been  awakened  and  the  faith  strength- 
ened by  knowing  what  had  taken  place  in  Turkey.  For  it  had 
often  been  said  that  it  was  not  natural  for  the  gospel-hardened 
communities  of  the  old  churches  to  have  an  old-fashioned  revival. 
We  must  not  expect  it;  their  type  of  Christianity  was  different; 
indeed,  some  said  that  such  a  revival  was  not  desirable,  the  people 
were  too  easily  stirred  to  emotion,  anyway,  which  would  be  only 
passing;  that  a  slow  building  up  of  Christian  character  was  to  be 
preferred. 

In  truth  we  have  to  lament  some  evils  that  accompanied  the 
good,  some  manifestations  that  were  transient  emotions,  some 
arrogant  claims  of  superior  spirituality  and  sinlessness  that- 
brought  gainsaying  and  contempt,  and  whose  result  in  a  people 
always  ready  for  a  factional  fight  has  been  division  in  some 
churches.  This  has  gone  to  such  an  extent  in  Cesarea  itself  that 
we  have  been  tempted  to  say  that  the  evil  has  overbalanced  the 
good.  But  I  am  convinced  that  these  errors  will  not  live,  and 
even  in  the  midst  of  them  it  is  plain  that  the  standards  held  by 
the  people  as  to  what  it  means  to  be  a  Christian,  what  it  means  to 
be  spiritually  minded,  how  much  the  Bible  ought  to  be  our  daily 
food,  to  what  extent  religion  is  measured  by  the  life  and  not  by 
the  talk  —  these  standards  have  all  been  raised.  A  higher  stand- 
ard is  demanded  of  preachers  who  shall  be  true  shepherds,  not 
hirelings,  who  shall  feed  the  flock,  not  themselves.  A  higher 
standard  is  demanded  of  candidates  for  church  membership,  the 
movement  for  purifying  the  church  rolls  of  unworthy  members 


THE    RISING    TIDE.  41 

lias  gained  force.  And  most  important  of  all,  because  it  feeds 
every  one  of  these  movements,  the  desire  for  Bible  study  is  grow- 
ing. Prayer,  not  as  voluble  talk  —  for  which  Oriental  Christians 
have  a  great  apt  it  ud< —  but  as  real  communion  with  Jesus  Christ 
and  the  Father,  has  taken  a  prominent  place.  I  have  never  felt 
anywhere  a  more  real  sense  of  being  in  the  divine  presence  than 
when  joining  in  prayer  with  some  of  the  simple,  earnest  souls 
there.  Prayer  meetings,  not  as  a  place  for  the  declamation  of 
platitudes,  but  as  a  place  of  seeking  a  blessing,  whose  prolonga- 
tion was  not  due  to  the  interminable  length  of  a  few  long-winded 
prayers,  but  to  the  number  of  short,  insistent  petitions,  —  such 
prayer  meetings  have  given  a  new  meaning  to  the  gatherings  of 
God's  people. 

The  encouraging  fact  in  all  this,  though  it  may  also  be  counted 
a  humiliating  fact  for  us  missionaries,  is  that  in  most  cases  the 
human  agents  concerned  have  been  our  native  brethren  and 
sisters,  and  many  of  them  the  younger  ones.  In  spite  of  all  that 
may  be  said  as  to  the  harm  resulting  from  immature  thought, 
from  over-literalism  in  interpretation,  from  halfway  conceptions 
and  out-of-proportion  presentations  of  truth,  so  that  in  some 
places  the  doctrines  of  perfectionism  have  taken  root,  yet  the 
central  facts  of  the  need  of  conversion,  that  salvation  is  only 
through  the  blood  of  Jesus,  that  membership  in  any  church, 
Armenian,  Greek,  or  Protestant,  is  no  guaranty  of  acceptance 
with  God,  that  complete  surrender  is  what  the  Lord  demands  of 
every  one  of  us,  —  these  things  have  taken  their  place  in  the  belief 
and  understanding  of  the  native  church  as  never  before.  The 
name  of  "  Teslimji,"  "  Surrender,"  has  been  given  to  the  leaders 
in  this  movement,  largely  with  a  note  of  derision  in  it,  but  it 
indicates  well  the  central  point  of  their  teaching. 

There  has  been  progress  in  intelligence,  in  ability  to  handle 
large  questions.  We  see" it  in  our  preachers'  meetings,  and  in  the 
meetings  of  the  executive  committee  of  the  preachers  acting  with 
us  in  the  management  of  the  general  evangelistic  work.  There  is 
progress  in  the  way  of  manly  independence,  less  of  leaning  on  us, 
financially  and  mentally.  The  young  men  who  were  entering  the 
work  fifteen  years  ago  made  the  impression  on  me  of  being  much 
more  childish  in  many  ways  than  those  who  come  to  us  now.  And 
this  can  hardly  be  due  to  a  change  in  my  point  of  view,  because 
with  increasing  disparity  in  years  between  myself  and  them  the 
tendency  would  be  to  take  an  opposite  view. 


42  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

But,  what  I  wish  to  present  to  you  to-day  is  not  the  fact  of 
progress  in  these  other  lines,  however  encouraging  it  may  be,  but 
that  there  is  a  rising  tide  of  spirituality  which  promises  the 
brightest  things  for  the  future  and  makes  us  thank  God  for  the 
power  of  his  Holy  Spirit. 

In  conclusion  may  I  tell  of  a  single  case  that  shows  this?  It 
was  in  the  town  of  Eregli,  where  I  had  gone  with  my  dispensary 
assistant  for  medical  work,  not  expecting  to  find  much  interest 
in  higher  things.  There  was  one  Protestant  brother  there,  but 
he  had  proved  too  often  a  stumbling-block  instead  of  a  spiritual 
power.  But  we  had  hardly  settled  down  before  we  found  a  little 
company  of  young  men  who  were  seeking  the  light.  They  gath- 
ered around  my  companion  like  bees  around  a  clover  blossom. 
They  had  received  their  impressions  of  truth  in  Cesarea,  though 
that  was  three  days'  journey  away.  We  had  meetings  every 
night;  it  was  impossible  to  satisfy  their  hunger.  One  of  them 
came  to  me  with  his  troubles.  He  thought  he  had  given  himself 
to  Christ,  but  he  could  not  feel  the  joy  and  satisfaction  he  expected. 
We  prayed  together,  and  his  prayer  was  labored,  flat,  had  no 
rising  power  in  it.  We  talked,  and  at  last  it  came  out  that  there 
were  things  in  his  business  which  his  conscience  disapproved  but 
which,  because  of  his  partners,  he  felt  he  could  not  give  up.  It  was 
shown  to  him  that  here  was  the  difficulty,  he  could  not  find  the 
perfect  peace  without  the  perfect  surrender.  He  stopped  talking 
and  was  evidently  battling  with  himself.  I  waited  in  silence, 
only  praying  for  him.  The  silence  continued  for  minutes.  Then 
he  looked  up  and  said,  "  I  will  do  it."  And  when  we  prayed 
again  the  strings  of  his  tongue  were  loosened,  his  praise  and  peti- 
tions for  help  soared  unhindered  from  a  free  spirit  right  up  to  the 
ear  of  a  listening  God. 

It  is  seeing  and  hearing  such  things  as  these  in  these  last  years, 
that  were  so  rare  before,  that  makes  me  repeat  that  in  Turkey 
the  tide  of  spiritual  desire,  spiritual  understanding,  spiritual 
power,  is  a  rising  tide.  God  grant  we  may  all  see  it  come  in  its 
fullness. 


PRESENT    OPPORTUNITY    IN    MICRONESIA.  43 


PRESENT  OPPORTUNITY  IN  MICRONESIA. 

Rev.  Irving  M.  Channon. 

Micronesia  is  the  smallest  of  the  missions  of  the  American 
Board,  but  its  value  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ  is  not  in  proportion 
to  its  size.  God  has  a  way  of  lending  a  value  to  things  without 
relation  to  size.  Indeed,  we  are  just  beginning  to  discover  that 
each  of  the  great  mission  fields  has  its  own  problem  and  its  special 
contribution  to  the  kingdom;  or,  rather,  that  God  is  working  out 
in  each  field  his  own  will  and  purpose  in  a  special  way.  It  is  this 
discovery  of  the  mind  and  plan  of  the  Master  that  is  making  the 
study  of  missions  so  interesting.  Micronesia,  then,  presents  in  a 
word  the  spectacle  of  a  fallen  race,  after  centuries  of  heathenism, 
reduced  to  the  lowest  conditions  imaginable,  waiting  to  test  the 
power  of  the  gospel  to  reclaim  them. 

Living  on  coral  reefs  but  a  few  feet  above  the  sea  and  a  few 
rods  in  width,  literally  sand  bars;  without  mountains,  rivers,  or 
lakes;  with  a  very  limited  rainfall;  without  mines  and  forests, 
and  hence  with  no  natural  resources,  only  the  cocoanut  palm 
and  pandanus  tree  and  under  a  tropical  sky,  they  present  condi- 
tions of  work  extreme  and  trying.  These  islands,  lying  apart 
from  the  great  lines  of  travel,  and  presenting  but  few  inducements 
for  trade  and  commerce  to  seek  them  out,  the  only  hope  for  the 
people  is  the  Word  of  God.  And  so  they  present  to  the  church 
the  opportunity,  nay,  they  are  a  challenge  to  us,  to  demonstrate 
the  power  of  the  gospel  to  lift  fallen  humanity  into  a  new  life  in 
Christ.  Notwithstanding  these  obstacles  mentioned,  these  islands 
have  always  been  interesting  and  from  the  beginning  have  yielded 
quick  returns.  The  very  poverty  of  the  people,  mentally  and 
spiritually  as  well  as  physically,  has  made  them  ready  to  listen 
to  the  offers  and  blessings  of  the  gospel. 

But  at  no  time  has  the  work  been  so  promising  as  just  now,  and 
this  is  due  to  several  things.  First,  we  have  back  of  us  the 
experience  of  forty  years  of  mission  work  which  is  of  the  greatest 
value.  The  very  fact  that  we  have  a  past,  although  only  forty 
years,  cannot  be  overestimated.  Fort}'  years  that  stand  out  so 
different  from  all  the  rest  of  their  heathen  past!  The  very  trials 
and  difficulties  are  in  themselves  valuable.     The  presence  of  these 


44  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

early  missionaries  and  recent  converts  has  given  to  the  people  a 
concrete  gospel,  and  we  must  certainly  remember  that  we  are 
dealing  with  a  people  in  a  kindergarten  stage.  Again,  we  are 
ready  to  reap  the  reward  of  these  forty  years'  labor.  The  founda- 
tions are  laid.  Bible  and  school  books  are  translated.  Schools 
have  been  started  and  churches  founded.  There  is  now  in 
Micronesia  a  church  membership  of  about  seven  thousand.  But 
again,  greater  than  this  is  the  growing  intelligence  on  the  part 
of  the  natives.  They  are  coming  to  understand  the  gospel,  the 
Christian  life,  its  meaning,  its  claim,  and  its  beauty.  They  under- 
stand better  its  teachings.  There  is  among  them  the  conviction 
of  sin,  a  sense  of  guilt,  and  a  growing  desire  for  better  things. 

In  a  recent  tour  of  these  islands  we  were  very  much  pleased  and 
gratified  to  find  that  we  could  preach  regular  revival  sermons,  and 
that  the  people  understood  means  of  grace,  regeneration  through 
Christ,  and  felt  some  need  for  salvation.  In  a  short  visitation  of 
a  few  weeks,  more  than  seven  hundred  and  fifty  yielded  their 
hearts  to  Christ  as  a  result  of  such  preaching. 

In  the  schools  we  are  finding  the  difference  between  heathen 
children  and  children  born  of  Christian  parentage,  and  how  much 
more  it  is  possible  to  teach  them.  We  are  just  beginning  to  get 
those  whose  parents  were  Christians.  A  few  years  ago  it  was  not 
possible  to  teach  them  more  than  the  simplest  branches,  seventh- 
and  eighth-grade  studies,  but  now  they  readily  understand  and 
take  up  such  studies  as  physical  geography,  ancient  history, 
physiology,  botany,  and  physics.  As  these  go  out  and  become 
teachers,  better  and  better  results  are  obtained. 

One  great  help  that  has  come  to  us  in  the  last  few  years  is  the 
taking  of  these  islands  under  the  protection  of  Great  Britain  and 
Germany.  They  are  suppressing  many  of  the  heathen  excesses 
and  revelries  and  maintaining  law  and  order  and  making  it  possi- 
ble for  us  to  prosecute  religious  work  freely.  Recently,  large 
deposits  of  phosphate  have  been  found  on  two  of  our  coral  islands, 
and  they  are  being  worked  by  an  English  firm,  who  employ  over  a 
thousand  picked  young  men  from  the  surrounding  islands.  This 
offers  us  a  special  opportunity  to  start  a  mission  school  and  have 
the  advantage  of  this  company  of  young  men.  By  reaching  these 
with  the  gospel  we  will  reach  in  turn  a  large  number  on  the  islands 
as  they  return  to  their  homes.  May  we  not  hope  that  the  churches 
will  enable  the  Board  to  reach  out  for  the  saving  of  this  people  in 
Micronesia  who  are  so  providentially  placed  under  their  care? 


WM'AL   SERMON.  45 


ANNUAL  SERMON. 

Rev.  George  A.  Gates,  D.D., 

President  of  Pomona  College,  Claremont,  Cal. 

"  The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us."  — 2  Corinthians  5: 14. 

This  language  can  mean  either  Christ's  love  for  us  or  our  love 
for  Christ.  It  is,  however,  fairly  certain  that  Paul's  thought 
demands  the  larger  meaning, —  Christ's  love  for  man.  The  occa- 
sion was  this:  Paul  and  Silas  seemed  to  their  hearers  so  much  in 
earnest  that  they  were  thought  to  be  unbalanced.  In  that  age 
crazy  people  were  supposed  to  be  taken  possession  of  by  some  evil 
spirit.  So  they  said:  "Paul,  something  has  got  you,"  —  that 
is  the  meaning  of  the  verb  used.  Instead  of  contradicting  them, 
Paul  tactfully  replied:  "  Yes,  you  are  right.  Something  has  got 
me.  I'll  tell  you  what  it  is.  The  love  of  Christ  has  set  its  grip  on 
me." 

Your  preacher  can  find  no  fitter  Scripture  word  for  this  service 
than  that  happy  rejoinder  of  Paul's,  "  The  love  of  Christ  has  laid 
hold  on  us." 

We  are  gathered  for  a  great  occasion,  memorial,  glad,  trium- 
phant. Let,  however,  the  first  note  be  a  call  "so  to  think  as  to 
think  soberly."  We  may  not  meet  in  the  hilarity  of  children  at 
play,  but  in  the  seriousness  of  mature  children  of  God,  —  glad, 
indeed,  that  the  achievement  of  the  hundred  years  is  so  great, 
humbled  that  the  work  today  is  not  greater.  As  we  recall  the 
first  annual  meeting  —  attendance  of  five;  receipts,  one  thousand 
dollars  —  and  compare  that  with  this,  the  humility  of  honest 
gratitude  may  mark  our  spirit.  This  week  will  be  rich  in  occa- 
sions of  expressing  sheer  triumph,  joy  in  great  victories  of  noblest 
lives  well  spent,  results  able  to  bear  the  searching  light  of  any 
test  the  universe  may  put.  But  this  hour  of  such  week  is  for 
worship,  wherein  pride  or  mere  glorification  —  most  of  all,  self- 
gratulation  —  would  be  irreverence  and  shame.  The  names  of 
great  dead  who  gave  their  lives  to  this  work  wholly  are  in  our 
minds  and  hearts.  Is  the  church  today  living  worthily  of  such 
ancestry?  Unless  this  meeting  sends  us  back  to  our  places 
humbled  and  consecrated,  with  a  reverence  of  purpose  deeper 
than  the  mere  joy  of  modest  results  already  won,  even  with  a 


46  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

sober  consecration  unto  far  greater  service  and  wider  victories 
and  richer  winnings  for  God  in  the  coming  years,  then  will  our 
meeting  fail  of  its  best  purpose. 

If  Christ  be  God's,  the  cause  of  missions  is  dishonored  by  argu- 
ment in  its  defense.  To  attempt  to  defend  missions  is  to  grant 
need  of  defense.  The  cause  lies  properly,  not  in  the  realm  of 
discussion,  but  of  vision.  The  cause  is  an  inspiration,  a  challenge 
of  God  to  man.  If  the  church  is  an  organization  of  the  highest 
known  to  man,  the  work  of  missions  is  the  finest  engagement  of 
that  institution.  This  is  nothing  new.  It  has  been  so  from  the 
first  missionaries  after  Jesus  until  this  day. 

When  Samuel  J.  Mills  was  in  the  agony  of  decision,  he  cried 
out,  "  Oh,  that  I  never  had  been  born!  "  He  reached  a  choice,  and 
after  a  hundred  years  we  can  answer  why  he  was  born  better  than 
was  possible  in  his  day.  The  facts  of  actual  accomplishment,  as 
the  mind  grasps  the  story  of  the  century's  work  and  seizes  the 
picture  of  what  is  round  this  globe  of  earth,  are  a  beautiful  poem. 
The  word  poem  is  Greek  for  "  something  done  ";  if  a  work  be 
really  "  done  "  it  is  done  well,  —  and  that  is  always  a  poem. 
Dull  and  ungrateful  should  we  be  not  to  feel  the  beauty  of  God's 
good  gift  of  some  success  in  this  work. 

The  days  we  shall  be  together  will  run  over  in  measure  of  the 
joy  of  those  triumphs  of  grace,  as  little  glimpses  of  the  great  vision 
of  the  whole  will  appear  in  speech  and  song.  As  our  faith  lays 
hold  on  this  pioneer  work  of  Christianity  in  its  world-aspects,  as 
we  catch  a  little  of  the  view  of  what  shall  yet  grow  from  these 
plantings,  there  is  no  language  for  the  glory  of  the  hope  of  it  all. 
Either  this  is  so,  or  we  shall  do  well  to  go  back  to  our  homes  and 
sleep  awhile  longer,  — some  generations  or  centuries  longer,  —  till 
we  are  ready  for  God's  way  of  looking  upon  his  Son's  work  on 
this  earth. 

This  world  may  yet  realize  that  ancient  word,  "  I  count  nothing 
that  is  human  foreign  to  me,"  and  so  foreign  missions  shall  be  no 
more.  Like  the  successful  physician,  whose  ambition  is  to  make 
himself  so  useful  in  a  case  that  he  becomes  useless,  so  the  work 
of  foreign  missions  will  not  have  fulfilled  itself  till  it  shall  have 
ceased  to  be. 

But  meantime  we  Americans  may  reverently  recall  that  all 
we  have  of  Christian  civilization  we  owe  to  foreign  missions. 
Our  ancestors,  amid  the  oak  groves  of  the  Druids  or  the  fields  of 
Brittany,  were  heathen.      It  is  the  highest  time  we  were  paying 


A.NNUAL   SERMON.  47 

this  historic  debt.  This  first  century  of  American  missions  is 
the  modest  beginning  on  that  payment.  As  the  right  teacher  is 
always  learning  more  from  his  pupils  than  they  from  him,  so 
during  this  century  foreign  missions  have  given  us  some  great 
tuitions  and  brought  within  our  field  of  Christian  sight  some 
glorious  visions. 

Contributions  to  Modern  Life. 

.1.  The  first  of  our  chief  considerations  may  well  be:  Some 
contributions  made  by  foreign  missions  to  life,  thought,  and 
outlook. 

1.  One  of  the  most  beautiful  works  of  foreign  missions  is  the 
subjective  effect  on  the  men  and  women  who  do  the  work  and  live 
their  lives  on  the  foreign  field.  Have  we  not  all  known  apparently 
mediocre  men  grow  into  giants,  not  only  of  spiritual  character,  but 
of  intellectual  grasp  and  administrative  efficiency?  One  just 
beginning  writes,  "  I  have  already  multiplied  myself  by  four." 
Some  men  and  women  who  would  possibly  have  remained  com- 
monplace at  home  have  reached  eminence  under  the  tutelage  of 
the  cogent  emergencies  of  the  foreign  field.  Heroes  and  heroines 
are  they  become.  They  had  to  be  such  or  utterly  fail  out  there. 
They  see  the  vision  of  the  coming  kingdom;  it  breaks  their  hearts 
that  we  at  home  cannot  see  it  with  them. 

2.  Another  contribution,  perhaps  the  greatest  of  all,  is  the  larger 
view  that  the  hundred  years  have  taught  us  of  God  and  his  rela- 
tion to  all  men,  of  the  whole  philosophy  of  history,  of  the  whole 
sweep  of  revelation,  of  the  whole  work  of  Christ's  gospel  to  the 
human  race.  That  view  is  larger  today  than  was  anywise  possible 
to  former  generations. 

We  are  near  the  spot  where  the  work  of  this  society  began. 
What  was  it  then?  Four  or  five  lads  were  setting  out  for  a 
mostly  unknown  work,  opposed  by  half  their  normal  supporters, 
their  philosophy  of  missions  going  little  beyond  converting  a 
few  heathen  here  and  there.  We  can  never  adequately  honor 
the  memory  of  those  men  who,  thus  meagerly  equipped  and 
wretchedly  sustained,  did,  with  courage  not  less  than  divine,  lay 
their  lives  on  that  homely  altar.  But  if  the  world's  conception 
of  foreign  missions  has  not  grown  in  a  hundred  years,  then  are 
missions  undivine;   for  what  is  of  God  is  alive  and  grows. 


48  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  no  realm  of  Christian  work  which 
has  undergone  more  growth,  both  in  philosophy  and  method,  in 
principle  and  in  application,  than  this  field  of  foreign  missions. 
This  larger  thought  —  not  of  our  church  or  any  or  all  churches, 
but  of  the  kingdom;  not  technical  creeds,  but  faith  and  right- 
eousness; not  separation,  but  permeation  —  is  not  so  new  to 
the  ablest  missionaries  as  to  some  at  home.  This  change  of  view- 
point is  now  old  enough  and  common  since  twenty-five  years. 
But  it  has  won  its  place  finally.  It  is  well  not  to  forget  something 
of  its  cost.  The  leaders  of  the  world's  thought  in  this  field  ought 
to  be,  and  have  been  and  are,  our  strongest  missionaries.  If  the 
time  ever  was,  it  is  long  gone,  for  praising  or  patronizing  these 
men.     They  are  our  instructors. 

For  example,  one  of  these,  none  other  than  the  president  of 
our  theological  seminary  in  India,  writes  recently:  "  I  am  a  great 
believer  in  the  kingdom  as  distinct  from  the  church.  I  teach 
that  our  efforts  today  should  be  to  advance  not  our  isms,  but  the 
kingdom  of  God;  that  the  kingdom  is  coming  more  markedly  in 
India  today  outside  than  inside  the  church;  that  every  reform 
in  Hinduism,  every  prayer  and  noble  ambition  among  non- 
Christians,  is  a  part  of  the  kingdom  of  God;  that  the  kingdom 
is  Christ's,  and  that  he  is  the  sole  animator  of  the  principles  of 
this  kingdom  wherever  they  may  be  found."  This  also  from 
one  of  our  strongest  men,  thirty  years  in  Japan:  "  I  am  an  ardent 
lover  of  the  Japanese,  an  admirer  of  their  past,  a  firm  believer  in 
their  future.  They  have  taught,  and  can  teach,  the  West  some 
things.  But  they  need  Christianity,  not  so  much  to  destroy  as 
to  fulfill  the  best  that  is  in  their  old  inheritance."  That  mission- 
ary statesman  and  philosopher  of  India,  recently  among  us.  has 
put  out  a  book  with  the  larger  view  on  every  page. 

Such  views  as  these  we  understand  to  be  held  in  our  time  by 
our  strongest  missionary  leaders  in  India,  China,  Turkey,  every- 
where. Their  judgment  is  well  known  from  their  abundant 
testimony,  with  which  most  of  us  are  assumably  familiar.  "  The 
planting  of  the  kingdom  "  is  the  great  modern  word.  That  is 
exactly  what  Jesus  and  the  apostles  taught  and  did.  It  is  a 
larger,  fairer,  truer  vision  than  the  best  of  those  of  former  times. 
The  spirit  of  it  has  been  in  mission  work  from  the  beginning;  all 
honor  to  those  who  wrought  nobly  with  equally  high  motive  and 
consecration,  but  with  the  lesser  vision.  "  Their  works  do  follow 
them." 


\\\i    VL    SERMON.  49 

Sucli  a  conception  harmonizes  missions  with  all  revelation  and 
providence.  It  makes  missions  more  organic  in  race  development. 
It  gives  firmer  ground  for  patience  and  constructive  hope  and 
courage.  This  larger  view  reaches  beyond  the  distinctively  reli- 
gions realm.  It  includes  the  whole  range  of  civilization  and  life. 
"  The  thoughts  of  men  are  widened."  To  this  inspiring  gain  of 
the  larger  world-thought,  contributions  distinct,  large,  and  many 
have  been  made  by  the  work  of  missions  and  the  missionaries. 

New  World-Visions. 

'.].  In  addition  to  these  tuitions,  the  work  of  foreign  missions 
has  opened  to  the  thoughtful  two  world-visions  that  easily  change 
into  a  cherished  hope. 

(a)  One  is  a  world-church.  Our  Protestantism  is  only  four 
hundred  years  old.  Suppose  in  the  course  of  the  patient  centuries 
Protestantism,  with  its  youthful  strength,  the  zeal  of  its  intel- 
lectual grasp  and  breadth  and  freedom,  in  the  united  power  of 
all  its  various-named  bodies,  should,  in  some  divine  fire,  melt  its 
trivial  differences  into  a  common  consecration  unto  world  salva- 
tion. '  Who  would  dare  attempt  to  foretell  what  might  be? 
Again  the  missionaries  are  leading  the  way.  In  North  China  four 
Protestant  organizations  —  the  London  Missionary  Society,  the 
Methodists,  the  Presbyterians,  and  the  American  Board  —  have, 
for  the  most  part,  organically  united  in  a  college  and  medical  school 
and  theological  seminary.  In  South  China  there  is  a  similar  union 
of  different  denominations  in  higher  educational  work.  In  India 
there  is  a  general  missionary  society  which  unites  all  Protestant 
Christian  bodies  in  normal  training.  In  Japan,  of  course,  similar 
movements  in  church  union  have  gone  farthest  of  anywhere. 
Almost  universally,  on  the  foreign  field,  some  degree  of  church 
union  has  long  been  a  practical  necessity.  This  is  a  rapidly 
growing  way.  Face  to  face  with  chasms  of  need,  our  home  dif- 
ferences become  trivialities.  They  are  luxuries  the  missionaries 
cannot  afford. 

Suppose,  then,  that  other  great  branch  of  the  Christian  Church, 
the  Roman  Catholic,  could  bring  to  this  reunion  its  best, — the 
magnificent  devotion  of  its  finest  members,  as  those  devotions 
have  shown  themselves  for  centuries  throughout  the  world,  a 
church  whose  ancient  saints  are  in  our  calendars,  —  a  church  of 
God  might  thus  be,  of  spiritual  insight  and  freedom,  coupled  witli 


50  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

a  deep,  deep  consecration  of  body  and  spirit,  a  church  fit  to  do 
better  the  will  of  God.  Such  a  union  might  easily  absorb  all 
minor  branches  of  Christendom.  Why  not?  Nothing  is  impossi- 
ble with  God,  and  God  has  time. 

Christianity  is  even  yet  young  upon  the  earth.  It  is  doubtful 
if  we  are  ready  for  that  thing  we  call  "  missions,"  as  it  lies  in  the 
womb  of  time,  coming  to  birth  by  and  by.  When  the  church  is 
once  gripped  by  the  love  of  Christ,  and  so  becomes  a  "  church  of 
a  living  God,"  there  will  be  nothing  less  than  "  a  new  birth  "  of 
missions. 

(b)  The  vision  widens.  This  world  never  saw  such  visions  as 
children  in  the  streets  may  see  today.  The  great  East,  which  we 
have  called  heathen  and  only  pitied,  almost  as  we  have  pitied  the 
savages  of  Africa  or  the  South  Seas,  may  come  with  its  gifts,  - 
the  subtle  intellect  of  India  at  its  best,  the  patient  strength  of 
China  in  its  abundance,  the  grace  and  sheer  ability  of  Japan. 
These  gifts,  as  once  before  "  from  the  East,"  may  be  laid  at  the 
feet  of  Jesus. 

The  vision  widens  again  —  into  a  world-hu?nanity.  If  a  uni- 
versal church  can  become,  the  nations  will  not  tarry  far  or  long 
behind.  As  individual  men  have  learned  to  live  and  work  to- 
gether with  mutual  helpfulness  and  kindness,  settling  their 
occasional  differences,  not  by  fist  or  club  or  gun,  but  by  argu- 
ment and  appeal  and  judgment  and  reverend  court,  so  the  nations 
and  peoples  may  one  day  learn  the  dreadful  folly  and  waste  and 
wickedness  of  war,  the  horridest  anachronism  the  sun  beholds. 
They,  too,  may  settle  their  occasional  differences  in  the  manner 
of  the  children  of  God.  There  is  no  reason  why  the  twentieth 
century  should  not  be  the  honorable  graveyard  of  human  war,  — 
if  only  "  the  love  of  Christ  "  can  "  constrain  "  mankind. 

In  the  light  of  God's  face  it  is  not  too  good  to  be  true.  Our 
Bible  is  full  of  just  such  visions,  only  we  do  not  dare  believe  them. 
This  hour  of  this  meeting  is  set  apart  for  visions.  Failure  of 
vision  is  loss  of  the  hour.  Face  to  face  with  the  world-work  of 
this  American  Board,  remembering  its  humble  beginnings,  seeing 
"  how  far  that  little  candle  has  cast  its  beams,"  may  we  not  dare 
to  believe  —  and  act  as  if  we  believed  it  —  that  "the  love  of 
Christ "  shall  "  take  possession  "  of  the  world? 

One  church,  however  many  families;  one  humanity,  however 
many  peoples,  sounds  like  a  beginning  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
upon  the  earth.     Is  not  the  vision  a  "  sure  hope  "  ? 


SlNNUAL  sermon.  51 

Things  that  Put  Us  to  Shame. 

B.  We  puss  to  a  second  general  consideration,  a  word  of  hu- 
miliation and  rebuke. 

The  spirit  of  this  meeting  is:  Courage,  forward!  But  let  it  be 
that  deep  courage,  not  afraid  to  face  all  the  facts,  not  deceived 
by  the  glare  of  a  temporary  success;  not  afraid  to  recognize  the 
danger  of  reaction,  that  may  take  the  insidious  shape  of  wicked 
contentment  in  any  past,  far  or  near.  With  all  that  ministers  to 
our  cheer  this  day,  let  us  know  that  the  coming  days  and  years 
will  demand  of  us  utter  seriousness,  a  devotion  of  spirit  and  conse- 
cration  to  work,  such  as  we  have  not  yet  known,  if  God's  will  is 
to  be  done  in  us  and  through  us  in  this  work.  Dare  we  forget 
these  latter  years  of  emptiness  of  missionary  treasuries?  It  is 
God's  blessing  of  success  that  the  work  pushes  us  and  pleads  for 
help  with  strong  crying  that  ought  to  break  harder  hearts  than 
even  ours.  The  sorry  fact  is  that  there  are  hundreds  of  our 
churches  and  thousands  of  our  people  that  know  little  and  care 
less  for  the  world  of  foreign  missions.  The  doing  of  any  work  that 
is  worth  while  costs  in  effort  and  sacrifice.  Nevertheless  these 
Herculean  labors  necessary  to  gather  money  are  not  our  glory, 
but  our  shame. 

Are  we  conscious  of  our  dishonor  that  the  missionary  forces  are 
bidden  year  by  year  to  cease  to  advance;  bidden  to  do  less  than 
stand  still,  even  to  retrench  and  retreat  and  give  up  well-begun 
enterprises,  cut  off  prospering  outstations,  sacrificing  the  work 
of  years?  Were  it  not  inexpressibly  sad,  it  would  be  no  less  than 
fearfully  ridiculous.  For  a  hundred  years  prayers  for  the  success 
on  mission  fields  have  been  made  in  countless  numbers.  Now 
must  the  prayer  be:  "  Lord,  please,  not  so  much  success.  We 
didn't  really  mean  it.  We  are  poor  and  cannot  pay  the  bills. 
Rebuke  the  zeal  of  those  dreadfully  successful  missionaries  lest 
we  be  forced  to  give  until  we  starve,"  —  that,  too,  in  days  of 
material  prosperity  never  before  known  in  this  nation;  in  days 
when  in  ten  years  Congregationalists  of  America  have  increased 
their  wealth  by  two  hundred  and  forty  million  dollars,  at  the  same 
time  cutting  off  ten  per  cent  of  their  church  contributions. 

What  does  it  mean,  this  anomaly,  discrepancy,  this  maladjust- 
ment between  prayer  and  act,  between  opportunity  and  achieve- 
ment, between  the  open  door  and  the  failure  to  enter  in,  this 
sending  out  an  army  and  withholding  its  supplies,  this  breach  of 


52  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

contract  with  those  at  the  front,  this  failure  to  honor  victories 
as  they  deserve  honor  in  the  forward  movement  to  greater  vic- 
tories? What  does  it  mean?  Why  not  tell  the  truth?  A  ser- 
mon should  dare  to  tell  it;   should  not  dare  not  to  tell  it. 

Well,  then,  here  it  is  in  all  its  stark  honesty:  We  American 
Christians  do  not  believe  in  Christian  missions.  That  is,  we  do 
not  believe  in  Christ.  That  is,  we  would  patronize  God  instead 
of  worshiping  him  and  serving  him  as  children  of  the  kingdom, 
who  believe  in  the  kingdom  and  in  the  redemption  of  this  world. 
We  believe  in  automobiles  a  hundred  times  more  than  we  believe 
in  missions. 

If  Jesus  should  appear  in  one  of  our  churches,  some  member 
of  that  church  would  patronize  him  by  offering  (that  is  the  word) 
to  take  him  for  a  spin  Sunday  afternoon  in  his  new  fifty-horse- 
power machine,  a  man  who  had  perhaps  put  one  ringing  dollar  on 
the  plate  for  foreign  missions.  The  machine  is  well  enough  in  its 
place.  It  is  only  here  a  typical  illustrative  answer  to  the  question 
whether  we  believe  in  missions.  Christianity  is  missions;  we 
make  it  one  of  our  conveniences.  The  cross  is  a  dainty  ornament 
at  vest  or  throat;  if  it  could  once  more,  as  it  was,  be  a  word  unfit 
to  be  spoken  in  polite  society,  it  might  again  have  power,  —  power 
to  save  us  from  our  poor  pretenses  of  faith. 

The  great  Christian  world  needs  rebuke,  not  wheedling;  needs 
to  feel  shame  to  look  Jesus  in  the  face  while  his  work  stands 
calling  to  ears  that  will  not  hear.  The  pity  of  it?  Not  a  bit  of 
it.  The  dishonor  of  it!  Let  us  not  creep  behind  pretense  of 
weakness;  let  us  confess  our  sin.  Well  has  it  been  said:  "  The 
greatest  peril  of  Christianity  is  not  in  criticism,  whether  it  be 
Biblical  or  theological,  but  in  the  failure  of  the  professed  followers 
of  Jesus  to  live  the  life  of  love  and  unselfish  devotion  which  he 
taught  and  illustrated." 

Our  other  rebuke  from  modern  missions  as  compared  with 
former  times  is  this :  The  adding  years  have  heaped  up  the  busi- 
ness obligation.  That  is,  those  missionary  men  and  women  have 
gone  out  at  the  appeal  of  our  churches  into  this  life-work.  They 
have  permanently  forsaken  all,  making  their  greatest  gift, —  their 
lives.  To  the  support  of  their  work  our  churches  are  pledged 
by  the  most  solemn  obligations  organized  society  knows.  Just 
suppose  that  it  is  not  so.  Then  all  gifts  may  cease,  the  mission- 
ary rooms  at  home  close,  all  missionary  enterprises  be  called  off, 
the  missionaries  come  home. 


A.NNTJ  \1>   SERMON.  53 

What  a  nightmare!  What  a  horror  of  impossibility!  Well,  it 
would  seem  to  be,  either  —  or.  If  it  be  the  Lord's  business,  it 
ought  to  be  pushed  or  dropped,  not  dawdled  with.  "  Lord  bless 
our  feeble  efforts  "  is  a  poor  prayer  for  self-respecting  folk  to  put 
up.  The  old-time  Biblical  answer  to  that  cowardly  and  shameful 
attitude  might  be  —  nay  is:  "  Son  of  man,  stand  up  on  your  feet 
and  I  will  speak  to  you." 

Different  days  must  come,  for  God  is  not  sleeping,  nor  has  he 
given  up  his  Son's  gospel  to  failure.  When  those  other  days  do 
come  into  our  superficially  Christian  civilization,  they  will  come 
with  the  whelming  of  a  mighty  passion.  Passion  —  that  is  the 
word,  that  is  the  word  of  this  hour,  by  which  may  the  hour  be 
remembered. 

The  Passion  of  the  Cross. 
C.  Our  third  and  last  consideration  is:   The  passion  of  the  cross. 

It  is  not  without  significance  that  that  great  word  "  passion  " 
has  a  double  meaning.  Its  ordinary  use  among  Christians  is  to 
refer  to  the  passive  suffering  of  Jesus  on  the  cross.  That  has 
touched  the  heart  of  mankind.  The  pathos  of  Calvary  has 
redemptive  power  so  long  as  human  history  shall  be.  That  proof 
of  God's  love,  even  for  those  who  have  scorned  and  hated  him. 
this  human  race  can  never  forget.  It  lies  at  the  very  heart  of  the 
Christian  preacher's  gospel. 

But  passion  has  another  meaning,  —  suffering  still,  but  suffer- 
ing because  of  the  drive  from  within  of  a  mighty  desire.  It  is 
that  meaning  which  has  more  and  more  to  realize  itself  in  Chris- 
tian thought.  The  fact  is,  the  ongoing  of  the  universe  is  by 
impulse  from  within  more  than  by  compulsion  from  without.  In 
human  life  all  sorts  of  passions,  in  all  grades  of  love  and  hate, 
drive  the  affairs  of  men  at  a  stiff  pace.  But  there  is  one  passion 
to  the  indulgence  of  which  one  may  give  himself  up  with  absolute 
abandon  of  surrender  and  all  will  be  of  safety  unto  salvation,  — 
the  passion  to  minister  to  any  need.  That  was  God's  love  revealed 
on  the  cross.  Would  we  know  how  much  God  loves  men?  Ask 
Calvary.  That  is  the  passion  we  are  bidden  to  share  and  show  to 
all  men.  The  real  passion  of  Christ  is  what  moved  his  whole  life, 
including  his  death,  namely,  the  passion  to  help  and  save.  It  is 
not  only  to  provide  a  way  of  salvation  if  men  will  enter  upon  it. 
It  is  to  go  out  with  the  passion  of  an  infinite  wish  and  will  to  set 
men  into  that  way.     It  is  the  passion  to  spring  to  rescue  when  the 


.54  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

cry  of  "  Help!  "  is  heard.  We  humans  know  something  of  the 
leap  of  the  heart  and  body  in  response  to  that  ringing  call;  what 
must  be  the  passion  of  one  like  Jesus,  over  against  the  world's  cry 
of  need,  and  the  call  of  the  far  deeper  unuttered  or  even  unfelt 
need!  That  passion  was  back  of  Paul's  word:  "  The  love  of  Christ 
has  gripped  me,"  "  till  it  is  no  longer  I,  but  Christ  in  me." 

It  is  that  phase  of  the  passion  of  the  cross  that  is  the  actual 
cause  of  our  assembling  at  this  place  this  day.  The  young  men 
whom  we  remember  were  on  fire  with  that  same  divine  passion 
to  help  and  to  save.  It  is  the  passion  for  souls,  only  amplified 
into  something  more  nearly  approaching  the  divine  ideal  for  all 
human  life.  For  the  "  kingdom  of  God  "  in  Bible  usage  is  not 
heaven  nor  in  heaven.  "  The  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men." 
The  kingdom  of  God  is  here  on  this  prosaic  earth.  God  is  here 
or  nowhere.  Our  work  is  to  bring  about  the  kingdom  of  God 
here  in  human  life  and  human  organizations. 

When  we  can  once  see  it,  the  right  soul  is  set  on  fire  with  the 
passion  of  it.  Do  we  think  we  shall  go  on  playing  at  missions  — 
giving  our  dimes  or  quarters,  or  the  mere  overflows  of  our  posses- 
sions, whether  we  be  rich  or  poor;  or  giving  the  little  remainders 
of  our  thought  and  interest  and  plannings  and  purposes  —  when 
once  the  passion  of  Jesus  gets  its  grip  on  God's  people?  It  is 
hard  to  believe  that  we  shall  reach  our  second  hundred  years'  end 
without  having  come  to  some  fuller  exemplification  of  what  the 
passion  of  Jesus  may  do  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  now  languidly 
bear  his  name.  Would  that  there  might  go  out  from  this  meeting 
some  beginning  of  that  passion.  It  would  most  mightily  change 
the  spirit  of  our  churches  in  all  their  life. 

"I  gave,  I  gave  my  life  for  thee; 
What  hast  thou  given  for  Me?" 

Do  we  imagine  that  there  is  no  more  call  for  great  feelings  and 
great  deeds?  Are  the  heroic  days  all  gone?  Is  there  for  us  and 
our  children  only  smiling  contentment  at  best  mildly  recognizant 
of  great  deeds  of  other  years?  Have  we  nothing  on  which  to  pour 
out  the  wealth  of  our  best  enthusiasms,  but  patronizingly  admir- 
ing the  great  souls  of  the  past,  their  great  passions  and  great  sacri- 
fices and  great  patiences  and  great  works,  as  we  read  them  in 
story  and  verse?  Ask  Livingstone  —  dying  on  his  knees  by  his  cot 
in  the  heart  of  darkest  Africa,  after  thirty  years  of  his  own  life 
given,  commending  that  continent  to  God  and  us  —  if  there  is  no 
more  call  of  God  to  man.     Ask  Mackay,  the  Church  of  England 


ANNUAL   SERMON.  OD 

martyr,  missionary  of  Uganda,  glad  to  live  for  and  be  counted 
worthy  to  die  for  the  far  worse  than  brute  savages  of  Africa.  Ask 
young  Thurston,  coming  home  to  die,  but  falling  asleep  in  my 
California  home  before  he  could  reach  his  own  in  Massachusetts, 
glad  to  have  begun  to  give  his  life  for  China.  And  Pitkin,  dying 
under  Boxer  weapons  for  the  Chinese  in  the  spirit  in  which  Jesus 
died  for  all  men,  consecrating  with  his  last  words  his  baby  boy 
to  work  to  save  those  who  were  murdering  him.  Shall  we  forget 
that  pathetic  word  of  the  son  of  Abner  Kingman,  name  long  and 
still  honored  in  the  history  of  this  Board,  this  son  himself  having 
given  up  the  health  of  a  strong  man  in  that  North  China  field? 
This  was  his  word  of  wonder,  as  he  referred  to  Pitkin  and  the  rest: 

"  Tell  me  honestly,  could  they  or  we  have  believed  that  five 
years  later  the  Church  of  Christ  at  home  would  not  have  advanced 
one  step,  but  would  even  be  letting  slip  the  very  precious  fruits 
of  their  brief  work,  and  pleading  poverty  as  a  reason  for  leaving 
half  deserted  the  fields  that  had  been  their  home?  Could  they 
have  dreamed  that  their  devoted  sacrifice  would  stand  out  so 
strangely  against  the  background  of  cool  indifference?  Yet  this 
has  come  to  pass.  It  is  for  us  to  end  the  reproach  and  pity  of  it, 
and  to  follow  them  and  our  Lord  in  a  spirit  of  like  devotion  to 
the  people  they  loved. 

"  These  broken  bodies  of  our  friends  lie  to-day  under  the  gray 
walls  of  Pao  Ting-fu,  and  in  far-off  Shansi.  .  .  .  We  cast  them 
there.  .  .  .  We  cannot  fail  to  follow  them  in  a  like  devotion, 
except  at  a  sacrifice  of  honor." 

That  rebuke  may  meet  its  answer  some  great  day,  when  the 
love  of  Christ  shall  lay  grip  on  the  souls  of  the  church  people  of 
our  land. 

That  Christlike  passion  of  Pitkin's  for  China  may  yet  do  its 
legitimate  work.  I  have  the  memory  of  two  days  at  his  college, 
down  by  New  Haven  bay.  One  is  of  the  great  football  game  of 
the  year,  with  its  forty  thousand  spectators,  its  passion  of  nervous 
energy  of  all  the  throng  —  for  what?  A  mere  game  of  not  a  fig's 
consequence  as  to  which  should  win.  The  other  memory  is  of 
the  next  day,  a  quiet  Sunday  afternoon,  walking  down  the  stair- 
way of  the  Christian  Association  building  at  Yale,  coming  suddenly 
face  to  face  with  the  fine  portrait  of  Horace  Pitkin,  with  its  inscrip- 
tion of  eloquent  simplicity.  The  portrait  with  its  story,  the  look 
straight  from  its  ej^es  into  the  eyes  of  every  man  of  Yale  who 
walks  down  those  stairs,  the  lips  almost  speaking  the  call  of  that 
inscription  —  this  may,  some  divine  day,  rouse  in  Yale  men  and 


56  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

the  college  men  of  America  a  passion,  not  for  a  game  of  passing 
interest,  but  for  a  life's  work  and  life's  gift  to  the  greatest  cause 
in  all  the  world, —  Christian  missions. 

Why  not?  Are  we  so  faithless  as  to  deem  it  impossible?  God 
forbid  it.  Men  like  these  must  not  fail  in  their  vision  of  the 
future,  namely,  that  other  men  will  carry  on  their  work.  In  a 
right  universe  there  can  be  at  last  no  such  outcome  of  despair. 
Our  faith  rejects  any  such  finality.  That  would  be  to  believe  in 
death  and  not  in  life.  And  not  only  these  men,  but  hundreds  and 
thousands  just  as  devoted  who  have  lived  whole  long  lifetimes  of 
the  noblest  work  man  may  know,  men  and  women  of  whose  fellow- 
ship we  at  home  are  little  worthy.  God  may  yet  find  some  way 
to  call  us  out  of  our  faithlessness  in  spirit  and  in  action. 

But  we  know  another  phrase:  "  The  triumph  of  the  cross." 
The  movements  of  God  in  history  are  like  the  slow  uplift  of  the 
mountains  and  continents  out  of  the  sea,  a  fraction  of  an  inch  in 
a  century.  Though  our  patience  be  sorely  taxed,  our  faith  knows 
no  ultimate  discouragement.  The  triumph  of  the  cross, —  that  is 
our  faith.  But  the  triumph  of  the  cross  has  always  been  and 
will  always  be  by  the  way  of  the  passion  of  the  cross.  "  Jesus 
.  .  .  humbled  himself  .  .  .  to  the  death  on  the  cross.  Where- 
fore God  hath  highly  exalted  him."  Not  by  the  cross  emblazoned 
on  banners  of  crusading  armies  of  devastation,  but  by  the  spirit 
of  the  cross  in  the  lives  of  those  who  bear  his  name;  the  spirit 
of  the  cross  in  the  conduct  toward  other  peoples  of  those  nations 
that  call  themselves  Christian. 

Is  this  vision  vanity  —  this  dream  that  a  church  shall  yet  be 
upon  the  earth  that  shall  know  the  passion  of  the  cross?  Shall 
Jesus  never  see  of  the  "  travail  of  his  soul  "  and  begin  to  "be 
satisfied  "?  Is  Gethsemane  clean  forgot?  Amidst  the  din  and 
show  and  pride  and  anxieties  of  our  human  life  God  give  a  bap- 
tism of  the  Spirit  and  of  fire  of  the  passion  of  the  cross!  Under 
the  inspiration  of  such  vision  this  American  Board  began  its  life. 
Under  some  measure  of  that  same  inspiration  its  members,  home 
and  abroad,  live  and  work  still.  Under  the  holier  inspiration  of 
the  good  success  of  a  hundred  years  of  blessing,  with  the  broader 
and  truer  conception  of  the  great  work,  we  go  forward  to  a  new 
century  of  endeavor.  The  call  is  never,  "  Back  to  Christ,"  but 
always,  "  Forward  with  Christ."  May  this  new  century  of  mis- 
sions in  all  churches  know  a  sharing  of  the  passion  of  the  cross, 
that  the  future  may  heed  the  rebukes  of  the  past,  redeem  its 
pledges,  and  fulfill  its  promise. 


SERVICES  OF  THE  SECOND  DAY, 

Wednesday,  October   10,    1906, 

AT    WILLI  AMSTOWN 
AND    NORTH    ADAMS. 


"  The  first  personal  consecrations  to  the  work  of  effecting  mis- 
sions among  foreign  heathen  nations  were  here." 

RUFUS  ANDERSON. 


"  The  new  age  stands  as  yet 
Half  built  against  the  sky. 
Open  to  every  threat 

Of  storms  that  clamour  by ; 
Scaffolding  veils  the  walls, 
And  dim  dust  floats  and  falls, 
As,  moving  to  and  fro,  their  tasks  the  masons  ply." 

—  William  Watson. 


HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL    DAY.  59 


HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL  DAY. 

When  the  guests  arose  early  to  attend  the  outdoor  sun  rise 
prayer  meeting  in  Williamstown  at  6.30  a.m.,  a  cold,  steady  down- 
pour of  rain  greeted  them,  but  they  made  their  way  to  the  spot, 
and  as  they  drew  near  to  it  heard  the  chimes  of  the  Memorial  Chapel 
ringing  out  the  air  of  "  When  morning  gilds  the  skies,"  "  Awake 
my  soul  and  with  the  sun,"  and  other  morning  and  missionary 
hymns.  After  gathering  at  the  monument,  they  were  led  into 
Jesup  Hall,  filling  it  to  its  full  capacity  of  five  hundred.  A  con- 
siderable number  arrived  later  at  the  Haystack  Monument,  to 
engage  in  prayer  while  the  rain  fell  about  them.  Some  of  these 
had  left  their  sleeping-cars  in  the  early  morning  at  Williamstown 
and  gone  directly  to  the  spot.  Others  came  in  constant  succes- 
sion through  the  hours  of  the  rainy  morning  until  the  clouds  broke 
towards  noon.  All  through  the  afternoon  they  kept  coming,  so 
that  from  sunrise  to  sunset  that  site  was  the  place  of  almost 
uninterrupted  prayer  on  this  centennial  day. 

The  meeting  in  Jesup  Hall  was  led  by  Rev.  S.  M.  Zwemer,  D.D., 
of  Arabia.  His  brief  address  dwelt  upon  the  "  Royalty  of  Christ 
Calling  for  the  Loyalty  of  His  Disciples."  For  a  half  hour  after 
he  spoke,  petitions  were  offered  directed  especially  towards  the 
raising  up  of  more  missionaries.  After  the  benediction  by  Rev. 
James  L.  Barton,  the  congregation  withdrew,  singing  as  they 
passed  out,  "  Onward,  Christian  Soldiers." 

When  the  breakfast  hour  was  over,  delegates  to  the  Connecticut 
Valley  Student  Missionary  Conference  assembled  at  Jesup  Hall. 
All  of  the  following  institutions  were  represented:  Dartmouth 
College,  Northfield  Seminary,  Mt.  Hermon  School,  Williams  Col- 
lege, Amherst  College,  Mt.  Holyoke  Seminary,  Smith  College, 
Springfield  Training  School,  Hartford  Theological  Seminary, 
Trinity  College,  Berkeley  Divinity  School,  Wesleyan  University, 
Yale  University.  This  meeting  was  presided  over  by  George  C. 
Hood,  a  student  volunteer  of  Amherst  College,  and  the  address 
was  by  Dr.  T.  H.  P.  Sailer,  the  Educational  Secretary  of  the  Presby- 
terian Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 


60  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


MISSION  STUDY  CLASS  METHODS. 

s 

A  Summary  of  the  Address  by  T.  H.  P.  Sailer,  Ph.D., 
Educational  Secretary  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign 

Missions. 

Those  of  us  who  are  interested  in  pushing  mission  study  in 
colleges  know  that  we  have  to  work  in  the  face  of  many  difficulties. 
We  have  insufficient  time  and  numerous  distractions.  Our  work 
is  so  important  that  we  cannot  afford  to  employ  any  but  the  most 
effective  methods,  and  so  we  turn  to  pedagogy  for  advice. 

The  very  metaphors  we  employ  in  thinking  of  the  teaching 
process  are  important.  We  speak  of  filling  the  class  with  infor- 
mation, of  hammering  facts  in,  as  if  we  were  dealing  with  passive 
and  unresisting  material  instead  of  with  minds  that  could  under- 
stand nothing  unless  they  were  active.  The  metaphors  of  diges- 
tion and  development  are  better,  but  even  these  may  sometimes 
mislead. 

There  are  four  things  necessary  for  successful  teaching. 

(1)  A  definite  aim.  We  must  know  what  we  are  trying  to  do. 
We  must  think  in  terms  of  the  objects  we  wish  to  obtain  and  not 
merely  of  the  subjects  we  wish  to  treat.  Our  ultimate  object  is 
the  development  of  missionary  character.  It  is  hard  to  give  a 
satisfactory  definition  of  character,  but  there  are  at  least  three 
essentials  we  must  include:  First,  a  sense  of  relative  values,  or 
insight;  second,  active  devotion  to  ideals;  third,  efficiency. 
Well-developed  missionary  character  ranks  missionary  ideals 
highest,  is  actively  devoted  to  them,  and  is  effective  in  realizing 
them. 

(2)  The  second  essential  for  good  teaching  is  adaptation.  This 
means  the  selection  and  arrangement  of  such  material  as  shall 
best  enable  the  class  to  develop  missionary  character.  The 
material  must  be  arranged  around  a  few  vital  issues.  With  the 
little  time  we  can  give  to  mission  study,  I  believe  that  it  is  a  mis- 
take to  treat  the  secular  features  of  the  country,  such  as  geography 
and  history,  apart  from  their  direct  relation  to  missions.  The 
material  should  be  well  correlated,  selected  on  account  of  its 
numerous  interrelationships.  We  remember  two  things  more 
easily  than  either  one  separately.     Facts  should  be  massed  around 


MISSION    STUDY    CLASS    METHODS.  61 

a  few  large  ideas  and  then  arranged  in  the  most  effective  order. 
There  must  be  plenty  of  concrete  illustrations,  so  that  the  generali- 
zations of  the  class  will  be  a  result  of  real  induction.  The 
material  must  also  be  stimulating,  and  should,  therefore,  be 
formulated  as  a  series  of  problems  that  shall  challenge  activity. 

(3)  The  third  essential  is  self-expression  on  the  part  of  the  class. 
Repeating  facts  from  memory  is  not  se//-expression.  We  must  call 
for  opinions  and  seek  to  stir  imagination  and  feeling.  When  we 
ask  the  class  to  close  their  books,  we  are  advertising  a  memory 
test.  The  true  teacher  is  willing  to  have  the  books  remain  open, 
because  he  is  concerned  not  so  much  with  what  the  text-book 
says  as  with  what  the  class  think  about  what  the  text-book  says. 
Activity  is  a  condition  of  growth;  so  we  must  exercise  the  higher 
faculties  that  we  wish  to  cultivate. 

(4)  Finally,  we  must  prolong  and  guide  the  activity  of  the  class 
till  it  results  in  definite  mastery.  We  can  fix  jdeas  and  habits  in 
three  ways,  (a)  By  repetition.  Let  us  repeat  and  fix  thoughts 
and  feelings,  however,  and  not  mere  cold  facts.  (6)  By  correla- 
tion. We  can  impress  most  things  best  upon  our  minds  by  study- 
ing their  relations  with  other  things.  WTe  should  correlate  facts 
and  ideas  not  only  with  one  another,  but  ideas  with  feelings  and 
actions.  When  we  secure  some  outlet  in  action  we  are  correlating 
knowledge  and  will.  The  best  way  to  fix  some  ideas  is  to  apply 
them  practically,  (c)  By  intervals  of  rest.  We  often  see' things 
more  clearly  after  we  have  slept  upon  them.  The  mind  returns 
to  a  subject  after  an  interval  with  new  insight. 

These  four  essentials,  aim,  adaptation,  self-expression,  and 
mastery,  condition  each  other,  and  all  should  be  kept  in  mind  from 
the  first. 


62  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


MORNING  SESSIONS. 

At  half  past  nine  the  chiming  of  the  bells  announced  two 
services  which  were  begun  at  the  same  hour.  One  was  a  com- 
memorative academic  service  under  the  auspices  of  Williams 
College.     The  other  was  conducted  by  Student  Volunteers. 

The  first  of  these  was  the  most  prominent  feature  of  the  Hay- 
stack Centennial  Day.  It  expressed  the  welcome  given  to 
members  and  guests  of  the  Board  by  Williams  College.  The 
building,  Thompson  Memorial  Chapel;  the  occasion,  reminding 
all  of  the  century  of  progress  in  foreign  missions;  the  speakers, 
representing  New  England  colleges  and  the  Baptist  denomina- 
tion, together  with  the  throng,  numbering  nearly  one  thousand,  of 
ardent  supporters  of  foreign  missions  who  were  present,  —  all  con- 
tributed to  make  it  a  memorable  service.  One  pastor,  Rev.  H.  E. 
Peabody,  of  Hartford,  reporting  upon  it  to  his  people,  spoke  as 
follows:  "  That  church,  with  its  noble  Gothic  tower,  cathedral-like 
in  all  its  outlines,  is  a  very  dream  of  beauty.  If  you  love  beauty  in 
architecture  it  will  repay  you  to  go  a  hundred  miles  out  of  your 
way  to  spend  a  half  day  to  see  that  chapel.  More  than  a  thousand 
people  thronged  its  nave  and  transept  at  this  service.  A  great- 
choir  of  college  men  preceded  the  procession  of  gowned  and 
hooded  dignitaries  into  the  chancel.  When  the  choir  sang,  with 
exquisite  beauty,  in  Latin,  Mozart's  '  Gloria  in  Excelsis,'  and 
three  college  presidents  discoursed  on  the  sanity,  the  heroism, 
and  the  world-meaning  of  that  old  haystack  prayer  meeting,  I 
could  but  ask  myself  what  Mills  would  have  thought,  or  what  he 
did  think  as  he  looked  down  from  heaven  and  saw  his  faith  and 
his  ideals  come  to  their  own  in  that  solemn  and  beautiful  service. 
Yet  higher  than  all  in  religious  emotion  and  power  in  that  service 
was  Watts'  great  hymn,  '  0  God,  our  help  in  ages  past,'  sung  by 
the  whole  congregation,  and  the  brief  closing  prayer  of  Washington 
Gladden,  a  prayer  which  took  hold  almost  visibly  on  the  throne 
of  God." 


Edge  of  the  Grove,  with  a  Glimpse  of  the  Haystack  Monument. 


ADDRESS    OF    WELCOME.  63 


ADDRESS  OF  WELCOMK. 
Rev.  Henry  Hopkins,  D.D.,  President  of  Williams  College. 

Mr.  President,  members  of  the  great  historic  corporation  of  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions,  honored 
representatives  of  other  great  missionary  organizations,  distin- 
guished representatives  of  widely  scattered  institutions  of  learn- 
ing, who,  having  responded  to  our  invitation,  are  here  present, 
young  men  and  women  eagerly  looking  forward  to  missionary 
service,  beloved  missionaries  returned  for  a  time  from  distant 
fields,  converts  to  Christ  in  far-off  lands,  brethren  and  friends,  one 
and  all :  It  is  my  high  privilege  to  greet  you  in  the  fellowship  and 
service  of  our  common  Lord,  in  whose  love  and  service  we  are  all 
one.  In  behalf  of  the  college  whose  trustees  are  here  met,  and  of 
the  town,  where  many  of  you  are  guests,  I  rejoice  to  bid  you 
welcome. 

Believe,  I  beg  you,  that  this  word  "  welcome  "  is  spoken  in  no 
merely  formal  and  conventional  sense,  but  with  its  full,  broad, 
deep,  warm,  Christian  meaning. 

You  are  putting  us  under  heavy  obligations  in  many  ways  by 
your  presence.  One  I  mention.  This  distinguished  gathering, 
so  sane,  so  high  in  intelligence,  and  so  full  of  moral  earnestness, 
is  an  impressive  testimony  to  the  character  and  value  of  the  great 
undertaking  in  whose  interests  you  are  met.  Such  a  meeting 
invests  the  cause  with  dignity  and  importance  in  the  eyes  of 
onlookers.  It  should  bring  pause  to  the  flippant  critic  to  see  you, 
such  as  you  are,  and  to  know  that  you  pay  the  homage  of  your 
understandings  and  the  highest  devotion  of  your  lives  to  this  work 
of  evangelizing  and  Christianizing  the  unevangelized  and  unchris- 
tianized  in  other  lands  than  your  own.  There  is  what  I  might 
call  a  violent  presupposition  that  you  know  what  you  are  doing 
and  that  it  is  worth  doing. 

Two  distinct  and  contrasted  conditions  in  college  life  are  neces- 
sary if  we  are  to  secure  the  best  results.  One  is  aloofness  from 
the  rush  and  turmoil,  the  excitement  and  strife  of  the  world  out- 
side; opportunity  for  undisturbed  communion  with  the  great 
spirits  of  the  past,  with  the  great  literatures  of  the  great  races,  the 
best  thoughts  and  highest  achievements  of  the  best  men  of  all 
times;   full,  unhindered  opportunity  for  the  clear  comprehension 


64  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

of  the  outlines,  at  least,  of  God's  new  and  glorious  revelation  in 
the  advancing  science  of  our  own  time;  opportunity  without  dis- 
traction for  these  things.  In  every  college  there  should  be  an 
invitation,  in  one's  surroundings,  to  go  apart  for  that  quiet  and 
solitude  of  the  spirit  in  which  ardent  youths  are  wont  to  ponder 
the  mighty  questions  of  duty  and  destiny.  The  student  who  has 
not  such  opportunity  is  defrauded  of  a  sacred  right. 

In  the  ordering  of  our  colleges  we  are  largely  neglectful  and 
derelict  here.  The  stir,  the  endless  hurry,  and  the  sophistication 
of  multitudinous  occupations  and  pursuits  often  makes  high 
thinking,  if  not  impossible,  exceedingly  improbable. 

There  is  a  contrasted  condition  also  essential  in  college  life; 
that  is,  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of  and  vital  connection  with 
the  most  notable  movements  of  one's  own  times.  This  is  entirely 
consonant  with  the  other  condition.  The  men  of  the  haystack 
found  it  so.  With  a  mail  but  once  a  week,  aloofness  they  had, 
enough  of  it,  and  freedom  from  distractions;  nevertheless  they 
knew  the  world  in  which  they  lived.  They  were  planning,  not 
only  for  the  redemption  of  Asia,  but  for  the  Christianizing  of  the 
new  territories  in  the  West.  You  know  that  it  was  in  view  of  this 
that  Mills  exclaimed:  "  Would  that  we  might  break  out  upon 
them  like  the  Irish  rebellion,  thirty  thousand  strong."  He  was 
himself  the  first  Protestant  missionary  to  preach  beyond  the 
Mississippi.  They  pondered  deeply  the  Negro  problem,  already 
beginning  to  loom  large,  and  Mills,  after  visiting  New  Orleans,  and 
the  south,  went  to  Africa  to  found  an  American  Negro  colony 
there.  The  father  of  Dr.  Edward  Everett  Hale  graduated  here 
in  1804.  At  our  commencement  in  1904  Dr.  Hale  read  to  us 
extracts  from  his  father's  graduating  oration,  which  was  a  com- 
prehensive survey  of  progress  for  fifty  years  to  prove  that  the 
world  was  growing  better.  At  the  time  of  the  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase, three  years  before  the  haystack  meeting,  they  debated 
over  it  here  in  the  Philotechnian  Society.  They  decided,  fifteen 
to  one,  that  it  was  unconstitutional  and  inexpedient,  —  but  the 
point  is  that  those  young  men  were  deeply  interested  in  national 
affairs. 

Brethren  and  Friends:  We  earnestly  desire  that  the  spirit  of 
missions  be  kept  vigorous  on  this  ground  and  in  all  our  colleges 
because  it  will  help  us  in  both  of  the  directions  I  have  mentioned. 
It  will  tend  to  a  separation  from  trifling,  to  a  noble  seriousness. 
No  one  can  consider  the  facts  and  problems  of  missions  without 


ADDRESS   OF   WELCOME.  65 

being  driveD  back  into  the  solitude  of  his  soul  to  ponder  the  mean- 
ing of  this  gospel  message  for  all  men.  He  will  be  brought  face 
to  face  with  the  question  of  his  personal  relation  to  this  growing 
kingdom  and  to  its  king;  and  then,  on  the  other  hand,  interest  in 
missions  must  broaden  the  mind  and  widen  the  sympathies,  for 
the  work  is  so  vast  in  extent,,  so  complex  in  its  relations,  and  so 
enlightened  in  its  method,  that  to  know  what  is  going  on  in  the 
mission  fields  of  the  world  is  in  itself  a  liberal  education. 

Again,  I  know  of  nothing  so  likely  to  rebuke  and  to  remedy 
secularism  and  materialism  as  the  earnest  attempt  to  enlighten 
and  lift  up,  to  help  and  to  save  men,  —  and  that  is  precisely  the 
meaning  of  missions.  Young  men  in  our  colleges  need  impulse 
and  motive  more  than  they  need  information;  they  need  the  spirit 
of  moral  adventure  more  than  learning.  Here  is  a  vast  and  benefi- 
cent undertaking,  worthy  of  the  highest  exercise  of  the  loftiest 
powers,  inviting  them.  For  the  sake  of  the  colleges,  we  must  not 
let  the  spirit  of  missions  die  out  of  our  colleges. 

From  Palestine,  once  upon  a  time,  there  flowed  forth  streams 
for  the  healing  of  the  nations;  but  today  that  land  is  desolate. 
One  hundred  years  ago  a  fountain  burst  forth  here  among  the 
hills,  a  strong  fountain  of  living  water.  May  we  be  saved  from 
the  fate  of  Palestine  which  has  become  a  place  of  pilgrimage, 
interesting  and  sacred  only  for  the  sake  of  that  which  happened 
long  ago! 

Faith  in  God  laughs  at  impossibilities.  It  was  so  at  the  Red 
Sea,  on  the  Mayflower,  at  the  haystack.  "  We  can  if  we  will." 
But  I  confess  that  what  chiefly  compels  my  homage  for  those  men 
of  1806  is  that  when  they  came  to  organize  to  carry  out  their  great 
intention,  they  formed  a  society  to  meet  "  in  their  own  persons  " 
the  exile,  the  toil,  the  danger,  —  no  proxies.  When  in  1861-65 
it  became  necessary  to  march  and  fight  and  die  that  free  govern- 
ment under  the  sun  might  live  and  not  die,  the  young  men  of  that 
generation  met  the  crisis  "  in  their  own  persons."  They  stood 
upon  the  fields  where  garments  were  rolled  in  blood  and  the  earth 
covered  its  slain,  in  their  own  persons,  and  so  they  saved  the  life 
of  the  republic.  God  grant  that  in  the  service  of  God  and  of 
humanity  to  which  the  Holy  Spirit  and  divine  providence  are 
always  calling,  this  spirit  of  extreme  devotion  may  never  perish 
from  our  American  colleges.  High  scholarship  is  fine,  is  alto- 
gether worthy,  but  self-sacrifice  in  love  is  Christlike,  is  sublime. 


66  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

RESPONSE  TO  THE  ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME. 
Hon.  Samuel  B.  Capen,  LL.D.,  President  of  the  American  Board. 

President  Hopkins:  In  behalf  of  the  American  Board  I  wish 
to  thank  you  and  your  associates  upon  the  committee  of  arrange- 
ments, for  your  invitation  to  hold  two  of  our  sessions  here,  and 
for  all  your  labor  and  service  in  preparation  for  our  coming. 

Men  and  women  at  the  front,  as  well  as  the  members  of  our 
churches  at  home,  have  been  praying  for  months  that  God's  bless- 
ing may  be  upon  this  annual  meeting.  And  native  Christians 
have  added  their  prayers  to  ours.  Offered  in  many  tongues,  they 
have  all  been  understood  by  the  Master.  We  can  believe  also 
that  there  is  an  unseen  cloud  of  witnesses  here,  interested  in  the 
messages  of  this  hour.  The  thoughts  of  the  Christian  world  are 
focused  here  today. 

It  is  certainly  worthy  of  mention  that  one  of  the  chief  features 
of  the  work  of  the  Board  almost  from  the  beginning  has  been  the 
emphasis  it  has  laid  upon  Christian  education.  Congregation- 
alism has  always  stood  for  an  educated  ministry.  We  have  been 
sending  to  the  front  some  of  the  best  scholars  from  our  colleges. 
They  have  established  among  our  missions  a  complete  system  of 
education  from  the  primary  grades  to  the  full  college  and  theo- 
logical course,  and  we  have  now  twenty-eight  colleges  and  theo- 
logical seminaries.  One  of  the  largest  Congregational  colleges  in 
the  world  is  Euphrates  College,  with  over  one  thousand  students 
in  its  different  departments. 

Williams  College  honors  itself  when  she  gives  honor  to  the  men 
of  the  haystack.  You  have  a  proud  history,  and  your  sons  are 
in  all  the  earth;  they  have  become  leaders  in  religion,  in  philan- 
thropy, in  the  scientific  and  the  commercial  world.  In  the  Civil 
War  they  bore  a  brave  and  honorable  part.  General  Garfield  and 
General  Armstrong  were  yours  to  train  for  their  wonderful  work 
for  the  nation.  But  the  grandest  thing  in  the  history  of  Williams, 
that  which  will.be  her  chief  glory  in  all  the  future,  is  the  fact  that 
this  was  the  birthplace  of  American  foreign  missions.  It  was  a 
pivotal  time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  God  wrought  here  to 
make  this  the  starting  point  of  a  new  era. 

It  was  also  the  beginning  of  a  new  day  and  a  new  spiritual  life 
in  the  college  itself.     It  is  a  part  of  your  history  that  the  religious 


KKSl'OXSK    TO    TIIK    ADDRESS    OF    WELCOME.  67 

interest  here  was  at  a  very  low  ebb'  when  Rev.  Dr.  E.  D.  Griffin 
came  to  be  your  president  in  1821.  His  coming  marked  the 
beginning  of  better  things  in  the  college  life.  But  Dr.  Griffin 
declared  that  he  owed  his  own  missionary  interest  and  enthusiasm 
largely  to  young  Mills,  who  was  at  one  time  a  student  in  his  home. 
It  is  one  of  the  numerous  illustrations  in  history  of  the  consecra- 
tion and  fire  and  enthusiasm  of  youth  arousing  those  who  are 
older  to  action.  And  your  own  honored  father,  Mark  Hopkins, 
left  the  record  that  Dr.  Griffin's  interest  in  the  college  and  his 
willingness  to  become  its  president  arose  largely  from  a  former 
acquaintance  with  Samuel  J.  Mills  and  his  knowledge  of  the 
college  as  the  birthplace  of  American  foreign  missions. 

It  is,  therefore,  most  fitting  on  this  one  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  Haystack  Prayer  Meeting  that  the  American  Board  should 
accept  your  hospitality  and  hold  a  part  of  its  sessions  here  at 
Williamstown.  And  it  is  equally  fitting  that  one  who  is  the 
president  of  Williams  College  and  vice-president  of  this  Board, 
and  also  the  son  of  one  of  its  greatest  presidents,  should  preside 
upon  this  occasion.  With  great  pleasure,  therefore,  I  commit  the 
care  of  this  meeting  to  you. 


68  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL, 

THE  NEW  PREMISES  AND  THE  OLD  CONCLUSIONS. 

Rev.  William  DeWitt  Hyde,  D.D.,  President  of  Bowdoin  College. 

In  a  passage  of  Scripture,  the  plenary  inspiration  of  which'no 
skeptic  ever  dared  to  doubt,  St.  Paul  declares  that  our  intellectual 
premises  are  ever  failing,  ceasing,  vanishing  away,  and  that  our 
spiritual  conclusions  in  the  form  of  faith,  hope,  love,  alone  endure. 
Every  premise  on  which  missions  rested  a  century  ago  has  changed. 
Yet  the  faith  of  Mills  that  "  we  can  do  it  if  we  will  ';;  the  hope 
of  Carey  that  "  expects  great  things  of  God  ";  the  love  of  Mrs. 
Judson,  who  sent  her  children  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  back  to 
the  homeland  with  the  words,  "  All  this  I  do  for  the  sake  of  my 
Lord,"  —  their  faith  and  hope  and  love,  after  the  lapse  of  the 
century,  shine  undimmed  and  undiminished,  and  are  the  standards 
by  which  we  test  Christian  manhood  and  womanhood  today. 

The  Old  and  the  New. 

Let  us  first  contrast  the  changed  premises.  Our  pictures  must 
be  brief  and  roughly  drawn.  A  hundred  years  ago  God  was  a 
judge;  the  Bible  a  statute  book;  earth  a  courtroom;  man  a 
prisoner  at  the  bar;  Christ  our  advocate;  the  cross  of  Christ  the 
price  of  our  release;  death  the  end  of  the  trial;  and  eternity  the 
duration  of  the  sentence. 

These  premises  were  sharply  visualized.  Eternity  was  pictured 
thus.  Imagine  a  ball  of  granite  large  as  the  earth.  A  fly  walks 
over  it  once  in  a  thousand  years.  When  this  solitary  fly,  walking 
over  this  ball  of  granite  large  as  the  earth  once  in  a  thousand  years, 
by  the  attrition  of  its  feet  shall  have  worn  that  vast  mass  away, 
then  the  torments  of  the  wicked  will  have  just  begun.  The 
pictorial  imagery  in  time  became  identified  with  the  premises;  so 
that  in  the  middle  of  the  century  an  orthodox  divine  barely 
escaped  trial  as  a  heretic  because  he  ventured  to  substitute  for 
the  traditional  symbol  of  punishment,  fire,  a  combination  of  two 
diseases:  one  rheumatic  fever,  which  hurts  you  every  move  you 
make,  and  the  other  St.  Vitus 's  dance,  which  keeps  you  moving  all 
the  time. 

The  conclusion  from  these  premises  was  obvious  and  inexorable. 
Reverence  for  God,  obedience  to  his  Word,  gratitude  to  Christ, 


THE    NEW    PREMISES    AND    THE    OLD    CONCLUSIONS.  69 

sympathy  for  men,  all  combined  to  drive  the  man  who  held  these 
premises  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  proclaim  man's  lost  condition 
and  impending  doom;  and  to  herald  the  tidings  of  Christ's  offered 
way  of  escape.  It  is  the  glory  of  the  men  of  a  century  ago  that 
they  drew  this  conclusion  logically;  responded  promptly  to  its 
call;  impressed  it  on  the  conscience  of  the  Church,  and  wrote  it 
into  the  history  of  the  world. 

Our  premises  today  are  very  different;  yet  we  must  beware  of 
complacency  or  pride  in  consequence.  If  they  are  wiser  and 
broader,  it  is  not  because  we  are  better  or  bigger  men  than  they; 
it  is  simply  because  God  has  been  at  work  a  century  longer  on 
our  intellectual  environment  than  he  had  on  theirs.  What,  then, 
are  our  premises?  and  what  missionary  conclusion  do  we  draw 
therefrom? 

God  is  our  Father-Friend;  man,  his  pupil-child;  earth,  a  home- 
school;  the  Bible,  a  series  of  letter-lessons;  sin,  the  unfilial,  un- 
brotherly  attitude;  Christ,  our  Brother-Teacher;  the  cross  of 
Christ  is  the  price  he  paid,  and  we  must  pay  for  living  the  filial 
and  brotherly  life  in  a  world  of  selfishness  and  hate;  hell  is  self- 
exclusion  from  our  rightful  place  in  the  Father's  heart  and  home; 
heaven  is  the  joy  of  fellowship  with  Christ  and  all  true  Christians 
in  the  service  of  God  and  our  fellow-men,  here  and  everywhere, 
now  and  evermore. 

What  conclusion  respecting  missions  follows  from  these  premises 
of  faith  in  our  Father-God,  and  love  of  our  Brother-Christ? 
Logically  and  inevitably  this :  We  give  the  best  we  have  to  those  in 
all  the  world  who  need  it  most.  This  general  conclusion  has  three 
specific  applications.  It  requires  a  missionary  organization  to 
bind  supply  and  need  together;  a  policy  on  the  foreign  field  which 
shall  meet  actual  and  concrete  rather  than  abstract  and  general 
needs;  and  an  attitude  at  home  which  shall  raise  and  sustain 
supply. 

The  organization  is  ready  to  our  hand.  We  are  not  compelled, 
like  the  men  of  the  haystack,  to  wring  the  requisite  organization 
from  an  incredulous  and  reluctant  church.  In  the  able  and 
representative  American  Board,  with  its  sagacious  and  devoted 
Prudential  Committee,  its  resolute  and  resourceful  officers,  we 
American  Congregationalists  have  a  missionary  organization  which 
is  a  model  of  efficiency.  One  thing  only  is  left  for  us  to  do,  —  to 
support  it  with  the  contribution  of  our  means  and  the  loyalty  of 
our  hearts. 


70  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


An  Efficient  Instrument. 

The  true  foreign  policy  has  already  been  developed  by  the 
spirit  of  Christ  in  the  hearts  of  the  missionaries.  To  impart  the 
new  life  of  love  that  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God  is  now,  <as  it  always 
was  and  always  will  be,  the  best  gift  the  missionary  brings.  This 
he  will  offer  at  all  times  and  in  all  ways,  by  preaching  and  teach- 
ing, by  precept  and  example,  by  invitation  and  exhortation.  Yet 
side  by  side  with  this  proclamation  of  the  gospel  in  its  verbal 
symbols  —  as  the  preparation  for  it,  as  the  expression  of  it,  as 
the  outcome  from  it  —  will  go  the  minor  ministries  to  mind,  body, 
and  estate,  to  home  and  industry  and  morals.  These  special 
ministries  will  differ  in  different  lands  and  races,  but  will  agree 
in  the  common  principle,  —  we  give  the  best  we  have  to  those  in 
all  the  world  who  need  it  most. 

How  splendidly  this  policy  is  being  worked  we  read  in  the 
reports  from  every  mission  field.  Temperance  displaces  strong- 
drink  and  opium;  industry  supplants  idleness  and  gambling; 
decency  banishes  the  Nautch  and  the  dancing  girls;  sanity  super- 
sedes mutilation  and  self-torture;  smiling  faces  expel  pessimism, 
and  cheerful  hearts  avert  suicide;  modest  self-respect  succeeds 
barbaric  pride;  the  dignity  of  womanhood  and  the  sacredness  of 
sex  abolish  the  zenana  and  the  harem;  the  mutual  love  of  one  man 
and  one  woman  does  away  with  child-marriage,  enforced  widow- 
hood, polygamy,  concubinage,  adultery,  divorce,  and  promiscuity; 
compassion  stops  the  slave  trade  and  emancipates  the  slave; 
humanity  forbids  cannibalism,  inhuman  sports,  cruel  ordeals,  and 
the  torture  of  criminals  and  witnesses;  charity  relieves  the  poor, 
feeds  the  famishing,  founds  leper  colonies  and  villages  of  hope, 
supports  asylums  for  the  orphan,  the  deaf,  the  blind,  and  the 
dependent,  establishes  dispensaries,  infirmaries,  and  hospitals; 
medical  science  grapples  with  disease;  education  lays  the  founda- 
tions of  a  higher  individual  character  and  a  better  social  order; 
justice  condemns  trickery  in  trade,  bribery  in  government,  and 
extortion  in  taxation;  reason  reverses  the  tyranny  of  custom; 
democracy  throws  off  the  frightful  incubus  of  caste;  and  the 
spiritual  worship  of  the  God  of  light  and  love  dispels  the  darkness 
of  idolatry  and  superstition. 

All  these  things  are  accomplished  facts  and  present  forces, 
which  we  have  simply  to  accept  from  the  hands  of  our  faithful 
and  devoted  missionaries  with  gratitude  and  admiration  as  the 


THE    NEW    PREMISES    AND    THE    OLD    CONCLUSIONS.  71 

magnificent  expression  in  the  outside  world  of  the  Christian  life 
we  cherish  in  our  hearts. 

It  only  remains  to  apply  our  conclusion  to  the  attitude  at  home. 
It  means  that  every  person  who  comes  to  Christian  self-conscious- 
ness in  a  Christian  land  shall  face  this  question:  "  Is  the  best  I 
have  to  give  something  which,  considering  my  health  and  training, 
my  temperament  and  tact,  my  versatility  and  resourcefulness, 
my  freedom  from  domestic  obligations,  is  more  needed  abroad 
than  at  home?  "  Each  Christian  man  and  woman  must  answer 
that  question  thoughtfully  and  squarely.  If  the  answer  is  affirma- 
tive, the  man  must  go.  He  cannot  be  a  Christian  if  he  stays  at 
home.     The  missionary  life  is  the  only  Christian  life  for  him. 

If  the  answer  is  negative,  it  devolves  upon  him  to  make  a  life- 
long and  systematic  consecration  of  influence,  money,  thought, 
and  interest,  to  send  and  sustain  the  men  and  women  who  have 
the  fitness  for  missionary  work  he  lacks.  In  one  of  these  two 
senses  every  man  who  will  be  a  Christian,  in  the  modern  and 
cosmopolitan  meaning  of  the  word,  must  be  a  missionary.  To 
make  every  Christian  person  face  this  clear  question,  and  answer 
it  in  one  of  these  two  ways  —  that  is  the  unfinished  business 
undertaken  a  century  ago,  and  handed  on  to  us  today.  Every 
Christian  a  missionary,  in  one  of  these  two  senses,  —  this  should 
be  our  watchword  for  the  century  to  come. 

Undoubtedly  this  task  is  difficult,  far  more  difficult  in  this  age 
of  steam  and  electricity,  trolley  and  telephone,  elevated  and  sub- 
way, manufacture  and  commerce,  automobiles  and  athletics,  than 
it  was  in  the  quiet  rural  life  of  a  century  ago.  Yet  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  hour.  Let  us  take  it  with  us  from  this  centennial  gathering, 
back  to  our  colleges  and  seminaries,  back  to  our  churches  and  our 
homes,  with  the  certainty  that  it  is  the  logical  conclusion  of 
premises  we  all  admit;  let  us  meet  it  in  the  faith  of  Samuel  J. 
Mills  that  "  we  can  do  it  if  we  will." 


72  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


A   MISSIONARY  CENTURY. 
Rev.  William  J.  Tucker,  D.D.,  President  of  Dartmouth  College. 

We  cannot  remind  ourselves  too  frequently  or  too  urgently  of 
the  fact  that  missions  from  this  country  began  in  the  simple 
affirmation  of  personal  duty  in  terms  of  personal  power.  "  Mills 
proposed  to  send  the  gospel  to  that  dark  and  heathen  land,  and 
said  we  could  do  it  if  we  would."  The  records  of  that  early 
comradeship,  if  there  were  any,  have  never  been  exposed,  but 
the  sentiment  of  the  leader  as  thus  recalled  by  one  of  his  comrades 
is  evidently  true  and  characteristic.  It  accords  with  whatever 
we  know  of  Mills  through  his  diary  and  correspondence,  as  when 
he  wrote  in  later  years  to  a  fellow- worker,  "  Though  you  and  I 
are  very  little  beings,  we  must  not  rest  satisfied  till  we  have 
made  our  influence  extend  to  the  remotest  corner  of  this  ruined 
world. 

No  one  could  claim,  even  in  this  academic  presence,  that  Mills 
and  his  comrades  originated  the  idea  of  missions  from  this  country. 
No  one  would  claim  that  they  created  the  feeling  of  obligation  in 
regard  to  foreign  missions.  But  we  can  all  see  that  what  they 
did  was  commensurate  with  the  idea  and  with  the  obligation. 
They  did  not  make  the  foreign  missionary  enterprise  necessary  or 
even  glorious;  they  made  it  possible.  While  others,  many  others, 
were  feeling  deeply  that  the  gospel  ought  to  be  carried  to  dark  and 
heathen  lands,  they  said,   "  We  can  do  it  if  we  will." 

It  is  this  saying  which  has  brought  us  here,  and  having  brought 
us  here  I  assume  that  its  simple  office  is  to  set  us  right  before  the 
missionary  tasks  of  our  century.  I  do  not  say  that  other  things 
were  not  said  or  done  elsewhere  in  that  early  time  to  which  we 
ought  to  give  heed,  but  the  thing  said  and  done  here  has  the  right 
to  our  undivided  thought.  Missionary  feeling  was  not  lacking 
in  the  earlier  days.  Missionary  desire  was  not  lacking.  But  feel- 
ing was  helpless,  almost  to  the  point  of  despair,  and  desire  was 
bound.  There  was  no  movement.  Then  there  fell  upon  this 
group  of  young  men  in  Williams  College  the  endowment  of  the 
sense  of  personal  power,  and  missions  began. 

The  sense  of  personal  power,  so  essential  to  the  missionary 
spirit,  is  so  wonderful  a  thing  and  withal  so  contradictory  in  some 
of  its  workings,  that  if  we  are  now  to  ask  for  it,  as  we  ought  to 


A    MISSIONARY    CENTURY.  73 

ask  for  it,  as  the  greatest  endowment  of  our  time,  we  ought  t<>  ask 
ourselves  whal  it  means.  The  answer  is  to  be  found  here  if  any- 
where. I  will  try  to  say  in  brief  words  what  it  has  meant  to  me 
as  I  have  put  myself  under  the  reminder  of  this  most  affecting 
and  inspiring  illustration  of  the  sense  of  personal  power  within  the 
religious  history  of  our  country. 

The  saying  and  the  example  of  young  Mills  and  his  comrades 
has  brought  back  to  me  and  vitalized  the  paradox  of  our  religious 
faith  that  it  is  the  greatness  of  a  task,  not  the  ease  of  it,  which 
makes  it  possible.  We  know  well  enough  that  when  religion 
becomes  easy  it  becomes  impossible.  We  know  that  in  religion 
the  easy  things  are  never  done,  because  the  religious  spirit  scorns 
the  doing  of  them  —  not  the  giving  of  "  the  cup  of  cold  water 
only,"  which  may  be  as  costly  as  the  drawing  of  it  from  the  well 
of  Bethlehem.  But  we  forget,  we  have  to  stir  ourselves  up  to 
remember,  that  the  greatness  of  the  task  set  before  us  is  the  chief 
sign  that  it  is  set  of  God.  And  yet  there  lies  the  unalterable 
truth.  In  spiritual  things  the  sense  of  personal  power  seems  to 
work  almost  without  limitation.  With  what  simplicity,  with 
what  naturalness,  with  what  freedom  these  young  men  thought 
of  their  personal  duty  to  the  world.  Their  sanctified  imagi- 
nation was  as  free  as  their  hearts'  desire  was  intense. 

No  need  to  remind  ourselves  for  our  encouragement  that  the 
work  of  foreign  missions  is  just  as  great  as  it  was  the  day  it  was 
begun.  Every  advance  made,  instead  of  lessening  the  task,  has 
introduced  new  needs,  new  values,  new  possibilities.  "  Foreign 
missions  "  means  today  the  human  soul  under  the  mightily 
increased  valuation  of  the  century;  foreign  missions  means  today 
men  and  nations;  foreign  missions  means  to-day  the  unity  of  the 
races;  foreign  missions  means  today  the  order,  the  peace,  the 
progress  of  the  world  in  its  wholeness;  foreign  missions  means 
today  the  warrant  for  the  promise  of  the  kingdom  of  God  on 
earth.  Nobody  will  deny  that  foreign  missions  in  our  day  means 
all  this  and  more.  When  it  means  this  or  more  to  us,  then  we 
can  say  of  our  immediate  part  of  the  work,  "  We  can  do  it  if  we 
will." 

I  doubt  if  any  one  of  the  Christian  ages  ever  needed  as  much 
as  we  need  the  balance  and  corrective  of  foreign  missions  to  match 
the  overwhelming  appeal  of  the  material  world  to  the  imagination 
of  men.  The  difficulty  in  living  the  Christian  life,  in  our  time,  is 
not  that  the  world  is  so  bad,  but  that  the  world  is  so  great.     We 


74  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

cannot  meet  the  temptation  from  the  various  kinds  of  greatness 
in  the  material  world  except  through  Christianity  at  the  full. 
Let  us  not  suppose  that  when  the  Christian  vision  of  the  world  is 
lacking  there  are  no  opportunities  for  seeing  the  world  in  persua- 
sive and  satisfying  greatness.  If  you  are  not  able  or  do  not  care , 
to  see  Africa  as  David  Livingstone  saw  it,  you  can  see  it  as  Cecil 
Rhodes  saw  it.  There  is  not  a  land  or  a  race  so  remote  or  so 
humble  that  it  cannot  be  exploited  through  its  appeal  to  the 
imagination  of  men.  To  think,  therefore,  of  Christianity  in  our 
generation,  without  foreign  missions,  and  without  foreign  missions 
of  the  type  and  pattern  set  here,  is  to  confess  ourselves  untimely 
Christians,  if  we  be  Christians  at  all. 

I  have  been  still  more  impressed  as  I  have  put  myself  into  con- 
tact with  Mills  and  his  comrades,  but  especially  with  Mills  him- 
self, with  the  fact  that  the  sense  of  personal  power,  personal 
though  it  be,  is  the  most  communicable  of  all  spiritual  gifts. 
There  are  solitary  powers  as  there  are  solitary  virtues.  Respon- 
sibility cannot  often  be  shared.  I  think  more  frequently  than 
otherwise  of  Lincoln  as  alone.  In  contrast,  the  sense  of  personal 
power,  such  as  that  created  by  the  missionary  spirit,  is  communi- 
cable. It  can  communicate  itself  partly  because  it  must.  It 
craves  fellowship  and,  therefore,  excites  fellowship.  The  normal 
unit  for  missionary  work  is  not  the  individual,  but  the  group. 
Power  is  multiplied  many  times  when  one  man,  looking  even  one 
other  man  in  the  eye,  can  read  there  the  warrant  for  saying  of  the 
seeming  impossible  duty,  "  We  can  do  it  if  we  will."  This  com- 
munication of  the  sense  of  personal  power  creates  in  men  what 
St.  Paul  calls  the  quality  of  like-mindedness.  It  not  only  creates, 
it  intensifies  this  quality  until  it  becomes  active,  aggressive,  com- 
pelling. The  power  of  like-minded  men  set  upon  a  high  purpose 
is,  as  we  know,  irresistible.  Jesus  recognized  it  when  he  said, 
"  If  two  of  you  shall  agree  on  earth  as  touching  any  thing  that 
they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done  for  them  of  my  Father  which  is  in 
heaven."  The  work  of  agreeing,  consenting  souls  is  sure  to  be 
ratified. 

Let  us  not  mistake  the  human  sources  of  the  motive  power  to 
foreign  missions.  You  cannot  locate  this  motive  power  in  any 
popular  uprising  of  Christian  peoples  or  of  the  churches.  You 
cannot  carry  foreign  missions  as  you  carry  reforms.  There  may 
be  times  of  special  devotion  and  enthusiasm,  there  may  be  times 
of  awakening  and  of  enlargement,  but  foreign  missions  are  for  all 


\    MISSION  \KV    CENT1  R\  .  75 

times  unci  for  all  the  time.  They  are  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion, day  b}r  day.  Where  shall  we  locate  the  steady,  as  Isaiah 
Bays,  the  unfailing,  the  undiscouraged  power,  through  which  the 
high  spirit  of  missions  can  be  perpetuated  and  communicated? 
The  answer  which  we  find  here  holds  good  in  principle  everywhere. 
The  units  of  communicable  power  are  in  groups  in  some  of  our 
colleges  and  seminaries,  among  some  men  in  the  ministry  and 
some  men  in  business,  and  in  some  homes,  each  in  itself  a  unit. 
Who  and  what  were  these  units  of  power  at  the  beginning?  A 
few  students  —  their  names  have  become  household  words ;  a 
fewT  ministers  able  to  overcome  the  apathy  or  fears  of  their  breth- 
ren; and  a  few  laymen  and  elect  women.  You  can  enumerate 
them.  The  principle  holds  good  with  the  relative  increase  of 
numbers  concerned  in  the  missionary  enterprise.  Here  again  the 
fact  remains  for  our  encouragement,  the  necessary  complement 
to  that  of  the  greatness  and  hardness  of  missions,  that  God  can 
set  apart  and  endow  some  men  with  the  sufficient  sense  of  power. 
Suppose  it  were  not  so.  Suppose  that  we  were  obliged  or  allowed 
to  commit  foreign  missions  to  the  average  sense  of  spiritual  power 
in  our  churches.  Suppose  that  the  personal  appeal  for  missionary 
service  be  withdrawn  from  the  period  of  "  adventurous  and  honor- 
able youth  "  and  restricted  to  the  season  of  calm  maturity. 
Suppose  that  men  who  see  visions  and  dream  dreams  be  retired 
from  the  councils  of  our  missionary  boards.  Suppose  that  the 
financial  estimate  of  the  boards  be  based  on  the  calculation  of 
world's  wisdom,  and  not  on  the  assurances  of  faith.  Suppose  that 
during  the  past  year  the  home  department  of  the  American  Board 
had  lowered  the  mark  instead  of  taking  the  risk  of  coming  short 
by  a  little  of  the  true  and  right  valuation  put  upon  the  capacity 
of  the  churches.  It  is  good  for  us,  brethren,  to  be  here,  right 
here,  as  we  are  called  upon  to  answer  the  pertinent  questions  put 
to  us  by  President  Capen  and  his  associates.  They  are  questions 
which  can  be  answered  only  by  men  when  and  where  they  are  at 
their  best.  I  do  not  put  the  college  above  the  city  as  the  place  to 
deliberate  about  missions.  I  care  only  that  in  our  deliberation 
we  shun  the  region  of  the  commonplace.  As  missions  began,  so 
must  they  be  continued  and  urged  on  their  way  by  men  who  are 
able  to  communicate  the  sense  of  power. 

But  beyond  these  impressions  upon  which  I  have  dwelt,  as 
following  from  contact  with  Mills  and  his  comrades,  I  have  been 
impressed  with  the  fact  that  the  distinguishing  and  rewarding 


76  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

mark  .set  upon  men  who  have  achieved  the  sense  of  spiritual  power 
is  humility.  I  do  not  know  whether  we  may  the  more  fitly  speak 
of  the  sense  of  spiritual  power  as  an  endowment  or  as  an  achieve- 
ment, so  closely  does  the  human  spirit  cooperate  with  the  divine. 
As  I  have  traced  the  workings  of  Mills's  spirit  I  have  felt  the 
constant  influence  of  his  relentless  activity.  Neither  men  nor 
opportunities  escaped  him.  Everywhere,  even  to  the  last,  he  is 
the  same  urgent,  undeniable  spiritual  force,  —  in  college  and  the 
seminary,  in  the  cities  and  on  the  frontier,  and  on  the  foreign  field. 
He  is  never  daunted  by  obstacles.  His  high  spirit  of  independence 
is  impatient  of  unnecessary  aids.  When  it  seemed  as  if  Judson 
was  likely  to  become  a  missionary  of  the  London  society,  he  breaks 
out  to  a  friend:  "  What,  is  England  to  support  her  own  missionaries 
and  ours  too?  Oh,  shame!  If  Judson  is  prepared,  I  would  fain 
press  him  forward  with  the  arm  of  a  Hercules  if  I  had  the  strength. 
I  do  not  like  this  dependence  on  another  nation  when  they  have 
done  so  much  and  we  nothing.  Perhaps  the  fathers  will  soon 
arise  and  take  the  business  of  missions  into  their  own  hands. 
But  should  they  hesitate,  let  us  be  prepared  to  go  forward,  trust- 
ing to  that  God  for  assistance  who  hath  said, '  Lo,  I  am  with  you 
alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.'  '  Determination  enough 
there  was  in  this  young  man,  courage,  independence,  but  not  a 
trace  of  pride,  or  high-mindedness,  or  superiority.  His  humility 
found  its  most  perfect  expression  in  the  naturalness  of  his  service. 
Without  the  slightest  self-consciousness,  in  apparent  indifference 
to  all  personal  results,  he  went  about  his  Father's  business  with  the 
simplicity  of  a  child.  And  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover, 
the  reward  attending  the  supreme  consecrations  and  efforts  of 
all  these  first  men  was  the  honor  of  humility.  So  far,  too,  as  my 
observation  extends,  this  is  the  natural  personal  reward  of  the 
missionary  service.  The  missionaries  of  my  acquaintance  —  and 
the  greater  their  personal  power  the  greater  is  this  personal 
characteristic  —  are  men  of  simplicity,  of  naturalness,  of  humility. 
But  in  spite  of  this  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  mission- 
ary service,  I  am  persuaded  that  the  greatest  obstacle  to  foreign 
missions  in  our  day  is  the  unendurable  and  unpardonable  arro- 
gance of  our  western  civilization.  We  have  created  an  atmos- 
phere which  is  hostile  to  the  spirit  of  missions.  Whether  at  home 
or  abroad  we  vaunt  the  superiority  of  the  things  of  sense  above 
the  things  of  the  Spirit.  I  do  not  see  how  we  can  long  continue 
to  be  known  as  a  missionary  nation,  how  we  can  continue  to  strive 


A    MISSIONARY    CENTURY.  77 

successfully  to  render  justice  and  to  show  mercy  without  learning 
better  how  to  walk  humbly  with  God.  A  part  of  our  foreign  mis- 
sionary problem,  perhaps  the  most  difficult  part,  is  at  home.  We 
cannot  long  maintain  one  type  of  Christianity  at  home  and  another 
type  abroad.  The  inconsistency  is  already  hurtful;  it  may  become 
fatal.  I  would  that  the  word  of  rebuke,  uttered  with  so  much 
power  by  Arthur  Smith,  might  be  reiterated  in  our  churches  and 
in  all  our  seats  of  power.  I  would  that  the  Board  might  recall 
from  time  to  time  its  missionaries  who  know  best  the  power  of 
humility,  to  tell  us  how  weak  we  are  in  our  pride  and  vanity.  I 
would  that,  in  some  way,  through  the  instrumentality  of  missions, 
God  might  convert  the  strength  of  this  mighty  nation  into  service- 
able power. 

So  then,  as  it  seems  to  me,  these  young  men  of  simple  but 
assured  power  are  speaking  to  us  today  across  the  century.  If 
we  think  of  them  in  the  light  of  their  after  careers,  the  result  is 
strangely  pathetic.  They  all  died  in  faith.  Not  one  really 
received  the  promise.  But  in  the  very  act  of  giving  themselves 
to  the  work  of  Christ  in  heathen  lands  they  gave  to  the  churches 
the  irrevocable  word  for  foreign  missions,  the  word  which  measures 
the  greatness  of  the  task,  the  word  which  communicates  itself  with 
power,  the  word  of  humility.  It  is  the  word  through  which  alone 
we  get  our  rights  and  our  part  in  the  glorious  work  of  Christian- 
izing the  world,  —  "  We  can  do  it  if  we  will." 


78  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


THE  EVANGELIZATION  OF  THE  WORLD,  THE   ESSEN- 
TIAL CONDITION  OF  AMERICAN  CHRISTIANITY. 

Rev.  Edward  Judson,  D.D., 
Pastor  of  the  Memorial  Baptist  Church,  New  York. 

When  kernels  of  wheat  have  been  scattered  over  a  wide,  fertile 
field,  and  harrowed  in,  they  do  not  come  up  evenly  and  simul- 
taneously. A  latent  potency  of  germinant  life  has  been  distrib- 
uted through  the  soil,  and,  by  and  by,  a  single  green  shoot, 
here  and  there,  emerges  from  the  earth  in  anticipation  of  countless 
others  that  are  to  follow.  It  will  not  do  for  this  single  shoot, 
this  early  riser,  to  say:  "  I  produced  and  inaugurated  this  mighty 
movement."  Its  thin,  green  blade  is  only  the  outward  and  pre- 
mature expression  of  a  vast  and  varied  tendency  that  slumbers 
beneath  the  surface  of  the  ground  and  is  bound  sooner  or  later 
to  assert  itself  in  forms  of  verdure  and  fruitfulness. 

' '  The  buried  bulb  does  know 
The  signals  of  the  year, 
And  hails  far  summer  with  his  lifted  spear." 

It  is  the  same  in  the  world  of  science  and  history.  The  Protes- 
tant Reformation  was  not  confined  to  one  spot.  The  same  tremor 
of  intellectual  unrest  simultaneously  seized  upon  all  the  countries 
of  Europe.  The  discoveries  that  have  been  waymarks  in  the  path 
of  the  student  of  nature,  as  of  oxygen,  or  of  anesthetics,  or  of 
natural  selection  as  the  key  to  evolution,  have  arisen  at  the  same 
time  in  the  minds  of  different  thinkers,  working  independently 
and  far  apart,  as  if  the  world  had  been  slowly  ripening  for  the  new 
thought,  and  as  if  at  the  very  center  of  things  there  were  a  troubled 
fountain  of  truth  that  could  never  rest,  but  kept  all  the  time  work- 
ing toward  the  surface  and  bubbling  up  at  many  different  and 
widely  separated  spots.  The  friends  of  each  inventor  have  insisted 
that  he  was  the  one  original  discoverer  and  that  all  the  others  had 
stolen  the  truth  from  him.  Afterwards  it  has  transpired  that 
the  new  idea  had  not  been  communicated  by  one  thinker  to  the 
others,  but  had  arisen  simultaneously  in  the  minds  of  them  all. 

The  same  law  prevails  in  the  religious  world  as  well.  We 
think  of  this  green  nook  among  the  Berkshire  Hills  as  the  cradle 


EVANGELIZATION    OF   THE    WORLD.  79 

of  American  foreign  missions.  We  come  here  with  unsandaled 
feet,  as  to  a  shrine.  We  recall  the  simple  old  story  of  the  pious 
students  of  a  hundred  years  ago  —  Samuel  J.  Mills,  Jr.,  James 
Richards,  Gordon  Hall,  Luther  Rice,  and  others  —  meeting  for 
prayer  in  the  ftttlegrove  not  far  from  the  college  buildings.  A 
thunderstorm  arises  and  they  seek  shelter  beneath  a  neighboring 
haymow.  They  enlarge  for  themselves  a  little  hollow  beneath  its 
projecting  eaves,  and  nestling  there  in  the  hay  they  continue  their 
Christian  conversation  and  prayer.  The  subject  that  engaged 
their  attention  was  the  duty  of  Christians  to  carry  the  gospel  to 
the  heathen  in  foreign  lands  —  an  old  theme  with  us,  but  strangely 
new  then  and  scouted  by  many  Christians  of  that  day  as  pre- 
sumptuous and  chimerical.  The  question  discussed  was  whether 
the  missionary  should  be  a  pioneer  or  should  simply  follow  in  the 
wake  of  civilization.  When  the  electric  light  has  come  into  public 
and  general  use,  turning  night  into  day  in  our  city  squares  and 
illuminating  the  interior  of  our  homes  as  well,  it  is  difficult  for  us 
to  appreciate  the  obstacles  that  lay  in  the  way  of  the  original 
inventor  as  he  strove  for  recognition  and  experienced  opposition 
and  contempt  and  friction  at  a  thousand  different  points.  So  it 
is  hard  for  us  to  whom  foreign  American  missions  are  a  hundred 
years  old  to  put  ourselves  in  the  place  of  those  few  students  who 
were  entering  upon  an  untried  path.  The  immortal  words  of 
Mills,  "  We  can  do  it  if  we  will,"  crystalized  their  thought  into 
a  holy  purpose,  and  kneeling  down  together  they  consecrated 
their  young  lives  to  the  work  of  carrying  the  gospel  to  the  heathen 
in  foreign  lands,  and  so  their  faith  produced  a  new  epoch  in  the 
history  of  American  Christianity. 

Other  earnest  spirits,  however,  elsewhere  had  arrived  at  the 
same  goal,  and  independently  and  by  different  paths.  When 
these  students  of  Williams  came  to  Andover  for  the  study  of 
theology,  they  found  there  a  group  of  men  inspired  by  similar 
ideas, —  Samuel  Nott,  Samuel  Newell,  and  Adoniram  Judson; 
and  the  first  two  men  to  actually  embark  on  this  high  adventure 
were  not  of  those  who  knelt  under  the  shelter  of  the  haystack,  but 
Samuel  Newell  and  Adoniram  Judson,  who  set  sail  for  India  at 
Salem  on  the  brig  Caravan,  February  19,  1812. 

The  lives  of  these  young  men  formed  a  great  watershed  through 
which  flowed  two  beneficent  streams.  One  expressed  the  mission- 
ary spirit  of  American  Congregationalism  in  the  American  Board 
of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions.     The  other  bore  to  heathen 


80  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

lands  the  sympathy  of  the  Baptists  of  America  and  found  its 
organic  expression  in  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union.  1 
rejoice  in  the  modern  vernal  atmosphere  of  Christian  unity. 
More  than  ever  before  we  endeavor  to  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit 
in  the  bond  of  peace.  Denominational  partitions  are  growing 
thinner.  We  emphasize  the  great  truths  that  we  believe  in  com- 
mon instead  of  the  distinctive  tenets  that  differentiate  us.  But 
I  have  always  felt  a  peculiar  kinship  between  the  Congregational 
body  and  the  Baptist  communion  which  I  represent  today,  not 
only  because  of  the  identity  of  our  church  polity,  but  because  of 
that  critical  time  when  we  joined  hands  together  in  the  task  of  the 
evangelization  of  the  world,  and  that  at  least  twenty-five  years 
before  any  other  of  the  Christian  bodies  of  America  had  under- 
taken in  any  organized  way  this  holy  crusade. 

The  single  thought  that  I  desire  to  lay  down  in  your  minds 
today  is  that  world  evangelization  is  the  essential  condition 
of  Christian  conquest  at  home.  The  only  faith  that  is  adequate 
to  the  task  of  conquering  our  own  country  is  the  faith  that  is 
robust  enough  to  achieve  the  conquest  of  the  world.  "  America 
for  Christ  "  becomes  possible  only  as  it  is  merged  in  the  cry,  "  The 
world  for  Christ."  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  nation  being 
Christianized  by  itself.  When  Jacob,  in  the  ancient  story,  asked 
the  herdsmen  of  Haran  to  roll  away  the  stone  from  the  mouth  of 
the  well  and  water  their  flocks  and  go  on  their  way,  his  purpose 
being  to  have  a  private  interview  with  his  fair  cousin  Rachel,  they 
gave  the  inexorable  reply,  "  We  cannot, —  until  all  the  flocks  be 
gathered  together,  and  till  they  roll  the  stone  from  the  well's  mouth; 
then  we  water  the  sheep."  The  Reubenites,  the  Gadites,  and  the 
half  tribe  of  Manasseh  were  not  permitted  to  settle  down  in  com- 
fort and  security  among  the  oak  groves  of  Bashan.  Their  mighty 
men  must  first  pass  over  the  Jordan  and  help  their  brethren  in 
the  conquest  of  Canaan.  We  have  here  the  illustration  of  a  far- 
reaching  principle.  It  is  one  of  the  commonest  experiences  of 
life  that  the  things  we  desire  most  are  secured  not  by  direct  and 
eager  search,  but  indirectly  —  as  it  were,  around  a  corner.  They 
come  to  us  when  we  are  looking  for  something  else.  People  do 
not  become  beautiful,  or  healthy,  or  eloquent,  or  popular,  or 
happy,  or  even  good  by  eager  endeavor.  If  we  apply  ourselves 
intensely  to  the  building  up  of  our  own  church,  we  fail;  it  often 
grows  faster  when  we  are  interesting  ourselves  in  the  churches  of 
others.     And  our  own  denomination  flourishes  most  when  we  are 


KVA.XOKLIZATIOX    OK    THE    WORLD.  81 

concerned  in  the  furtherance  of  the  great  truths  thai   make  all 
( Jhristians  one. 

Now  this  familiar  fact  relates  borne  mission-  and  foreign  mis- 
sions to  each  other  in  a  most  vital  way.  American  Christianity 
can  never  be  realized  by  itself  alone.  We  shall  reach  it,  if  at  all, 
via  China  and  Indi.i  and  Africa.  All  the  nations  must  be  gathered 
at  the  well  of  salvation  before  the  stone  is  rolled  away  from  the 
well's  mouth.  A  pious  zeal  that  ignores  the  heathen  abroad  is  of 
very  little  use  here  at  home.  The  most  effective  way  of  promof  ing 
a  revival  in  your  church  or  mine  is  to  inform  and  interest  our 
people  in  foreign  missions.  The  most  earnest  evangelists  are 
returned  missionaries.  A  lonely  worker  in  Assam  may  be  doing 
really  more  for  the  evangelization  of  his  own  country  than  a 
popular  preacher  in  New  York.  The  bane  of  the  time  is  a  near- 
sighted Christianity.  A  man  who  is  trying  to  convert  only  the 
heathen  at  his  door  will  fail  even  in  that.  Victory  afar  off  means 
spiritual  power  near  by.  Religion  is  a  commodity  of  such  a  kind 
that  the  more  you  export  the  more  you  will  have  at  home. 

We  sometimes  deplore  the  signs  of  spiritual  declension  in  our 
own  land  —  the  dying  out  of  the  churches  in  the  rural  districts, 
the  prevalence  of  worldliness  in  our  city  parishes,  the  love  of 
pleasure,  shameless  and  undisguised  sycophancy  toward  the  rich, 
a  weak  sense  of  obligation  to  the  commandments  of  Christ,  the 
falling  away  in  church  attendance,  and  the  noiseless  disappearance 
from  the  Christian  consciousness  of  truths  that  used  to  be  thought 
essential  and  precious.  The  cure  of  it  all  is  the  foreign  missionary 
spirit.  In  every  form  of  Christian  work  an  element  of  egotism 
may  inhere  —  the  love  of  one's  own  self,  of  one's  own  family,  of 
one's  own  town,  of  one's  own  country.  But  when  the  heart  goes 
out  to  the  lost  beyond  the  seas,  selfishness  disappears.  It  is  like 
the  love  of  which  the  poet  sings,  which  "  smote  the  chord  of 
self,  that,  trembling,  passed  in  music  out  of  sight.'' 

Only  such  a  spirit  as  this  suffices  for  the  exigencies  of  our  work 
at  home.  A  rifle  that  carries  six  hundred  yards  will  not  fail  me 
when  fired  point  blank.  The  foreign  missionary  spirit  is  all- 
inclusive.  An  old  farmer  made  two  holes  in  his  barn  door,  one 
for  the  large  cat  and  the  other  for  the  kitten,  forgetting  that  the 
large  opening  made  the  small  one  superfluous.  The  heart  that  is 
ample  enough  to  take  in  the  whole  heathen  world  will  have  room 
in  it  for  those  who  suffer  by  our  side.  I  have  found  returned 
missionaries  the  best  workers  in  the  churches  at  home.      When 


82  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

they  have  chanced  to  spend  a  winter  in  New  York  I  have  been 
glad  to  have  them  by  my  side.  They  have  always  been  so  sympa- 
thetic in  every  department  of  spiritual  work.  When  I  have 
endeavored  to  find  some  summer  homes  in  the  country  for  the 
children  of  the  poor,  missionaries  have  always  been  my  best 
helpers. 

We  must  be  sure,  however,  that  our  foreign  missionary  spirit  is 
genuine,  and  not  a  fad.  The  sure  test  is  whether  we  are  interested 
in  everything  lying  between  the  heathen  and  ourselves.  To  some 
of  us  distance  seems  to  lend  enchantment  to  the  view.  We  burn 
with  enthusiasm  over  the  miseries  of  the  people  far  away,  but  are 
limp  and  nerveless  as  regards  suffering  close  by.  We  find  our- 
selves greatly  interested  in  foreigners  when  they  reside  in  their 
own  land,  so  much  so  in  fact  that  we  send  our  best  people  as 
missionaries  to  them  and  pay  their  traveling  expenses,  but  when 
the  Lord  puts  it  into  the  hearts  of  these  same  foreigners  to  come 
to  our  shores  of  their  own  accord,  paying  their  own  traveling 
expenses,  instead  of  rejoicing  over  their  advent  we  are  sometimes 
inclined  to  turn  away  from  them  in  disgust.  The  Italians,  like 
their  own  olive  oil,  seem  to  lose  flavor  in  transportation  over  sea 
water.  They  do  not  look  so  picturesque  near  by.  Such  a  spirit 
in  us  is  only  the  semblance  of  the  true  missionary  spirit,  a  counter- 
feit, not  the  real  coin. 

In  the  foreign  missionary  work  to  which  we  have  committed 
ourselves  we  seem,  however,  to  be  pressing  against  a  stone  wall. 
The  thin  silvery  fringe  of  missions  seems  as  nothing  compared 
with  the  black  overwhelming  cloud  of  heathenism.  A  single  life- 
time is  too  short  for  the  accomplishment  of  anything.  Two  life- 
times have  to  be  spliced  together.  We  can  only  make  a  few  tracks 
in  the  snow  which  those  coming  after  us  will  see  and  follow  them 
home. 

' '  Others  shall  sing  the  song, 

Others  shall  right  the  wrong, 

Finish  what  I  begin, 

And  all  I  fail  of  win. 

"  What  matter  I  or  they, 
Mine  or  another's  day, 
So  the  right  word  be  said 
And  life  the  sweeter  made? 

"  Ring!  bells  in  unreared  steeples, 
The  joy  of  unborn  peoples; 
Sound,  trumpets  far-off  blown ! 
Your  triumph  is  my  own." 


EVANGELIZATION    OF   THE    WORLD.  83 

Success  and  suffering  are  organically  interrelated.  If  we 
succeed  without  suffering  it  is  because  others  suffered  before  us; 
if  we  suffer  without  succeeding  it  is  in  order  that  others  may 
succeed  after  us. 

But  there  are  signs  of  promise.  The  ears  of  the  heathen, 
according  to  one  of  their  own  number,  are  growing  thinner.  The 
universal  spiritual  need,  which  nothing  but  the  gospel  can  satisfy, 
deepens.  The  operations  of  God,  slow  in  their  beginnings,  hasten 
to  their  conclusion  with  thunder  speed.  An  apple-tree  is  slow 
to  come  to  the  point  of  bearing,  but  a  little  time  suffices  for  the 
ripening  of  the  apple.  The  withered  foliage  clings  to  the  branches 
of  the  trees,  and  is  reluctant  to  let  go,  but  a  day  comes  in  autumn 
when  the  air  is  full  of  falling  leaves.  The  breath  of  the  spring- 
time makes  no  appreciable  impression  on  the  icy  fetters  of  winter, 
until,  finally,  comes  the  roar  of  the  freshet.  The  lark  shakes  her 
notes  together  as  she  nears  her  happy  home.  The  growing  genius 
slowly  gathers  material  for  a  story,  but  the  plot  comes  with  a 
rush.  How  often  we  find  ourselves  pushing  with  all  our  might 
against  an  obstacle  which  does  not  yield  an  inch  to  our  effort,  and 
then  of  a  sudden  yields  and  disappears.  We  look  for  a  speeds- 
culmination  in  the  slow  processes  of  wrorld  evangelization.  A 
nation  shall  be  born  in  a  day. 

' '  Before  the  monstrous  wrong  he  sets  him  down  — 
One  man  against  a  stone-walled  city  of  sin. 
For  centuries  these  walls  have  been  a-building; 
Smooth  porphyry,  they  slope  and  coldly  glass 
The  flying  storm  and  wheeling  sun.     No  chink, 
No  crevice,  lets  the  thinnest  arrow  in. 
He  fights  alone,  and  from  the  cloudy  ramparts 
A  thousand  evil  faces  gibe  and  jeer  him. 
Let  him  lie  down  and  die :  what  is  the  right, 
And  where  is  justice,  in  a  world  like  this? 
But  by  and  by,  earth  shakes  herself,  impatient; 
And  down,  in  one  great  roar  of  ruin,  crash 
Watch-tower  and  citadel  and  battlements. 
When  the  red  dust  has  cleared,  the  lonely  soldier 
Stands  with  strange  thoughts  beneath  the  friendly  stars.". 


84  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


STUDENT  VOLUNTEER  SERVICE. 

At  the  same  hour  as  the  service  which  drew  such  a  throng  to 
the  Memorial  Chapel,  a  very  successful  service  was  being  held 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Connecticut  Valley  Students'  Mission- 
ary Conference  in  the  Congregational  church  at  Williamstown. 
Mr.  George  P.  Neumann,  a  student  volunteer,  of  Hartford  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  presided  over  this.  Addresses  were  made  by 
Rev.  John  H.  Denison,  speaking  upon  "  New  Aims  and  Changed 
Purposes  in  Foreign  Missions,"  and  by  Prof.  Edward  C.  Moore, 
D.D.,  of  Harvard  University,  whose  address  cannot  be  reproduced 
in  this  volume  owing  to  lack  of  a  full  report.  The  closing  address 
was  by  Rev.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis,  D.D.,  of  Brooklyn. 


NEW  MOTIVES  AND  CHANGED  PURPOSES  IN  MISSIONS. 

Rev.  John  Hopkins  Denison, 

Pastor  of  Central  Congregational  Church,  Boston. 

As  we  lookback  at  the  little  group  of  men  who  gathered  around 
the  haystack,  it  must  be  with  something  more  than  mere  interest. 
We  are  conscious  of  a  sense  of  awe  as  we  realize  what  a  vast 
movement  has  sprung  into  being  at  the  touch  of  their  feeble  hands. 
It  is  almost  as  if  some  one  should  pass  along  a  mountain  path  and 
start  a  stone  with  his  foot,  and  that  in  turn  another;  until  down 
along  the  mountain  side  there  plunges  a  vast  avalanche,  sweeping 
everything  before  it  and  changing  the  whole  face  of  the  country. 
Those  at  the  bottom  of  the  valley  might  well  think  it  absurd  that 
a  human  foot  had  let  loose  such  tremendous  powers;  the  result  is 
so  infinitely  greater  and  so  far  removed  from  the  cause  which 
began  it.  The  effect  which  that  little  group  of  men  has  produced 
is  not  to  be  measured  by  the  missionaries  that  have  followed  them 
or  the  converts  they  have  made;  that  little  group  of  men  has  done 
something  greater.  Their  influence  has  changed  the  attitude 
of  the  world;  from  them  there  has  sprung  up  a  new  world- 
consciousness;  the  missionary  spirit  which  stirred  them  has  been 
communicated  even  to  those  outside  the  church  and  to  some  even 
who  disapprove  of  missionaries;  in  spite  of  themselves  these  all 
share  in  the  missionary  movement.     I  wish  to  trace  the  gradual 


NEW    MOTIVES    AND   CHANGED    PURPOSES    IN    MISSIONS.  85 

broadening  of  the  missionary  motive  and  of  the  missionary  aim 
and  to  show  how  today  nearly  every  right-minded. man  is  taking 
some  share  in  the  foreign  mission  movement  even  though  he 
knows  it  not. 

When  these  men  gathered  about  the  haystack,  the  missionary 
motive  was  a  comparatively  narrow  one;  so  was  it  when  I  was 
in  college.  I  was  told  by  one  seeking  for  volunteers  that  unless  I 
could  feel  sure  that  all  the  heathen  who  had  no  opportunity  to 
learn  of  Christ  would  be  eternally  damned,  he  thought  it  would 
be  a  mistake  for  me  to  become  a  missionary.  This  motive  was 
thought  to  be  essential  in  missions.  It  was  the  starting  point, 
but  in  the  onward  sweep  of  the  kingdom  of  God  it  has  been  left 
far  behind.  The  feelings  which  are  stirring  men  to  an  interest  in 
foreign  nations  today  are  much  broader  and,  perhaps,  in  some 
ways  as  deep. 

International  Justice. 

The  first  new  motive  of  which  I  wish  to  speak,  we  might  call  the 
Sense  of  International  Justice.  In  old  days  each  community  and 
each  state  had  laws  of  its  own  and  these  were  not  considered  to 
apply  to  the  outside  world;  they  were  to  be  just  to  their  neighbors, 
but  to  foreigners  and  savages  they  owed  no  moral  obligations. 
Might  has  been  right  in  the  code  of  the  nations.  Today  a  totally 
new  feeling  is  springing  up,  a  sense  that  we  owe  justice  as  a  nation 
to  other  nations;  yes,  even  to  savages.  As  we  see  defenseless 
men  wronged  and  depraved  by  the  unscrupulous  hands  of  those 
who  represent  the  power  of  our  civilization  and  who  use  its  pres- 
tige simply  for  gain  and  lust,  there  rises  within  our  hearts  a  spirit 
of  indignation,  that  deep  underlying  sense  of  justice  that  is, 
perhaps,  when  once  aroused,  the  mightest  emotion  of  mankind. 
Though  we  have  outwardly  freed  the  slaves,  the  slave  trade  still  goes 
on  in  a  disguised  form.  In  Portuguese  Africa  and  in  the  South  Sea 
Islands  savages  are  bought  from  their  chiefs  by  unscrupulous 
traders,  carried  off  from  their  homes  and  made  to  toil,  sometimes 
under  the  lash,  and  always  with  threat  of  starvation  or  cruel 
punishment,  to  fill  the  pockets  of  some  white  man.  When  I  was 
in  the  South  Seas  I  spent  a  day  with  a  pleasant  German  who 
entertained  me  well.  Before  leaving  the  island  I  heard  news  that 
two  of  the  women  who  worked  on  his  plantation  had  been  killed 
and,  it  was  thought,  eaten.  When  I  met  him,  scarcely  able  to 
restrain  my  horror,  I  asked  him  if  it  was  true.    "  Oh.  yes,"  he 


86  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

answered;  "  I  dare  say.  It  is  a  beautiful  day,  isn't  it?  "  That 
answer  of  his  made  it  more  plain  to  me  what  would  happen  to  the 
defenseless  savage  upon  contact  with  civilization  than  anything 
I  had  seen.  Here  was  a  man,  a  pleasant  companion  and  a  gentle- 
manly fellow,  to  whom  it  was  an  absolutely  insignificant  trifle 
that  two  of  these  creatures  who  slaved  on  his  plantation  had  been 
killed  and  perhaps  eaten  for  food.  As  we  hear  of  such  things  as 
these,  there  comes  into  our  hearts  a  feeling  that  these  ignorant, 
helpless  men  must  not  thus  be  left  to  the  mercy  of  the  greed  and 
selfishness  of  our  own  civilization.  These  men  who  go  out  to 
them  represent  civilization,  they  represent  us,  and  we  feel  a 
gathering  determination  that  the  men  to  whom  they  go  shall 
have  justice  dealt  them.  If  in  no  other  way,  we  will  at  least 
send  out  men  who  will  represent  the  good  side  of  civilization, 
who  will  teach  them  what  justice  and  mercy  are,  and  who  will 
compel  those  traders,  who  in  the  dark  corners  of  the  earth  forget 
the  standard  of  humanity,  to  do  justice  by  those  whom  they 
employ. 

The  trade  in  alcoholic  liquors  is  no  less  great  a  curse  and  injustice 
to  savages.  Some  eight  million  gallons  per  year  are  imported  into 
West  Africa  today.  The  savage  naturally  has  some  human 
instincts;  this  stuff  transforms  him  into  a  demon  and  beast.  The 
pathetic  appeal  of  the  African  king,  Khama,  must  touch  every 
heart  with  a  sense  of  the  terrible  wrong  which  civilization  is  doing 
to  these  races  yet  in  their  childhood.  "  It  were  better  for  me 
to  lose  my  country  than  to  be  flooded  with  drink.  I  dread  the 
white  man's  drink  more  than  all  the  assegais  of  the  Matebele, 
which  kill  men's  bodies  and  it  is  quickly  over;  but  drink  puts 
devils  into  men  and  destroys  both  their  souls  and  bodies  forever. 
Its  wounds  never  heal."  Missionaries  are  outposts  of  civilization 
and  righteousness  who  insure  to  these  people  just  treatment  by 
civilization. 

An  even  greater  evil  has  stirred  men  today.  As  we  read 
Stanley's  book  on  the  Congo  we  are  struck  by  the  deep  underlying 
religious  purpose  of  the  man  as  he  toils  unceasingly,  constructing 
the  roads  which  are  to  open  the  Congo  to  civilization.  He 
endures  hunger  and  hardship,  the  desertion  of  his  men,  the 
incapacity  of  his  laborers,  and,  when  stricken  down  by  the  fever 
and  brought  to  death's  door,  he  nevertheless  rises  up  again  and 
goes  at  the  work  with  new  enthusiasm  because  he  believes  he  is 
bringing  to  these  ignorant  darkened  races  light  and  happiness  and 


NEW    MOTIVES    AND    CHANGED    PURPOSES    IN    MISSIONS.         87 

a  true  religion.  With  infinite  tad  and  kindness  he  wins  their 
confidence  when  all  others  have  failed,  and  because  they  trust 
him,  chief  after  chief  comes  forward  and  signs  an  agreement  with 
him  to  give  up  the  jurisdiction  of  his  territory  to  the  government 
•  if  white  men.  As  we  turn  from  this  scene  and  read  how  today, 
in  order  to  enrich  themselves,  these  white  men  for  whom  Stanley 
made  that  contract  of  peace  are  burning  whole  villages  and 
slaughtering  men,  women,  and  children,  are  torturing  these  poor 
defenseless  creatures,  lopping  off  their  hands  and  feet,  as  we  begin 
to  understand  what  is  being  done  with  this  contract  which  an 
American,  our  representative,  made  in  the  name  of  civilization, 
and  by  means  of  their  faith  in  him,  with  these  savage  tribes,  there 
begins  to  rise  within  this  nation,  yes,  and  abroad,  a  deep  sullen 
wrath,  the  like  of  which  has  never  been  seen  in  the  world  before. 
The  world's  conscience  has  been  outraged,  the  world's  sense  of 
justice  has  been  violated,  the  treaty  of  Civilization  with  the  help- 
less and  defenseless  has  been  hideously  forgotten;  and  from  every 
nation  that  claims  civilization  and  humanity,  like  a  deep,  ominous 
growl  rises  the  voice  of  the  "  World  Justice,"  so  long  asleep,  but 
now  awakening  in  wrath.  When  has  this  happened  before  in  the 
world's  history,  —  that  all  nations  should  be  stirred  to  see  that 
justice  is  done  to  savages?  The  sense  of  international  justice  is 
now  demanding  that  there  shall  be  mission  outposts  in  every  dark 
corner  of  the  world,  where  there  shall  be  men  who  will  represent 
the  good  side  of  civilization,  who  will  not  suffer  the  defenseless  to 
be  destroyed  by  its  unscrupulous  power,  but  see  that  justice  is 
done  them. 

Cosmopolitan  Responsibility. 

The  second  great  motive  is  that  of  Cosmopolitan  Responsibility. 
This  is  a  little  wider  than  the  mere  sense  of  justice.  It  is  not 
only  the  desire  to  see  wrongs  righted,  it  is  a  sense  of  obligation  for 
the  world's  betterment.  Once  a  man's  responsibilities  were 
limited  by  his  own  household;  now  he  feels  them  to  be  broad  as 
the  world.  Today  the  man  who  is  not  interested  in  foreign 
missions  proclaims  himself  a  provincial.  You  know  the  man  in 
the  little  country  town,  who  is  only  interested  in  the  items  of  the 
local  paper,  which  inform  him  that  Farmer  Brown  has  shingled 
the  roof  of  his  barn,  and  that  Mrs.  Smith's  hen  has  laid  an  unusu- 
ally large  egg.  It  is  of  no  moment  to  him  whether  Hearst  or 
Hughes  win  in  the  struggle  for  Xew  York;   he  has  never  been  to 


88  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

New  York;  he  is  a  provincial.  The  man  of  one  nation  who  has 
no  interest  today  in  the  affairs  of  another  nation  declares  himself 
provincial.  We  find  that  the  immigrants  when  they  enter  this 
country  have  absolutely  no  tolerance  for  other  nationalities. 
The  "  dago,"  the  "  sheeny/'  may  die  for  all  they  care.  Thank 
God,  we  are  bringing  them  up  into  a  wider  vision,  into  a  sense  of 
responsibility  for  the  affairs  of  every  man  in  every  nation.  When 
we  in  our  dealings  with  Cuba  are  demonstrating  the  fact  that  as  a 
nation  we  feel  responsible  for  maintaining  order  and  peace  and 
happiness  in  another  nation,  we  give,  perhaps,  the  most  striking 
testimony  to  the  influence  of  foreign  missions  that  the  world  has 
ever  seen.  The  true  man  of  today  feels  through  and  through 
this  consciousness;  his  inmost  soul  cries  out,  "  I  am  a  citizen  of 
the  world,  and  I  count  nothing  in  all  its  borders  alien  to  me." 
We  are  bound  to  its  farthest  confines  by  commerce;  we  are  secur- 
ing our  comfort  and  gratifying  our  appetite  by  the  toil  and  the 
labor  of  all  the  heathen  nations.  Shall  we  say,  "  I  have  no  respon- 
sibility to  these  men?  "  Will  any  man  today  dare  to  say,  "  I  am 
interested  in  the  savages  of  the  Congo;  they  shall  toil  to  provide 
me  with  rubber  that  I  may  be  sheltered  from  the  rain;  they  must 
minister  to  my  comfort,  but  if  they  are  burned  to  death  in  doing 
it,  what  is  that  to  me?  I  only  want  work  from  them;  I  care 
nothing  whether  they  are  happy  or  whether  they  die  in  agony?  " 
No  man  today  dares  say  that.  Nor  can  you  say:  "  I  wish  the 
women  of  Turkey  to  toil  making  rugs,  that  my  rooms  may  be 
beautiful  and  that  my  feet  may  tread  softly,  but  I  care  not  whether 
they  are  treated  as  mere  animals,  the  slaves  of  man's  lust.  It 
makes  no  difference  to  me  that  they  live  in  ignorance  and  bondage; 
all. I  want  is  my  comfort  and  I  will  get  it  from  them  in  any  way  I 
can."  Nor  again  can  we  say  today:  "  I  will  secure  rice  and  tea 
for  my  table  from  China,  but  it  makes  no  difference  to  me  what 
happens  to  the  men  who  produce  it;  their  souls  may  be  mutilated; 
they  may  be  living  in  darkness  and  despair  for  lack  of  that  which 
I  have,  but  so  long  as  I  get  my  rice  and  tea  their  misery  is  noth- 
ing to  me."  The  day  has  gone  by  when  men  can  say  such  things, 
and  everywhere  in  men's  hearts  is  this  rising  sense  of  Cosmopoli- 
tan Responsibility. 

The  Christian  Motive. 

It  is  these  two  motives  of  International  Justice  and  Cosmo- 
politan Responsibility   that   are   laying  hold-  upon   the   outside 


NEW    MOTIVES    AND   CHANGED    PURPOSES    I\    .MISSIONS.         89 

world  and  making  it  cooperate  in  the  mission  movement.  It  is 
a  far  deeper  motive,  however,  which  has  laid  hold  upon  our  hearts, 
who  are  at  the  center  of  the  movement,  and  who  are  to  form  its 
backbone.  The  motive  that  stirs  you  is  essentially  Christian,  in 
the  sense  that  it  is  vitally  connected  with  Christ  himself;  the 
other  motives,  though  they  sprang  from  him,  are  not  recognized 
as  having  such  a  connection  by  the  outside  world.  Once  the 
motive  that  urged  men  to  foreign  missions  was  the  command  of 
Christ,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world."  Today  we  have  got  beyond 
a  mere  command  or  a  mere  sense  of  duty.  Once  the  motive  was 
that  God  was  the  universal  Father  and  King,  and  that  it  was  the 
duty  of  a  Christian  to  make  all  men  recognize  this  fact.  We  have 
got  even  beyond  the  fatherhood  of  God  today,  to  its  first  great 
corollary.  "  One  is  your  father,  even  God  "  says  the  Scripture, 
but  it  adds,  "  And  all  ye  are  brothers."  A  little  while  ago  men 
felt  only  the  first  half  of  this.  They  recognized  that  God  was  their 
Father  and  felt  it;  but  they  did  not  feel  that  savages  were  their 
brothers,  or  Turks  or  Chinamen;  if  they  worked  for  them  it  was 
usually  at  the  Father's  command  and  not  because  they  felt  this 
unity  with  the  brother.  Todaj^,  thank  God,  we  are  beginning 
to  feel  this.  It  is  the  same  Holy  Spirit  that  has  stirred  men  all 
through  past  ages,  but  that  Spirit  has  begun  to  produce  a  new 
and  sweeter  fruit  on  the  old  human  stalk.  If  you  discover  some 
unknown  man  lying  hurt  in  the  midst  of  a  crowd  you  may  pass 
him  by  unheeding,  but  if  upon  looking  at  his  face  you  see  that  he 
is  your  own  brother,  you  will  rush  into  the  midst  of  that  crowd 
and  not  give  up  until  everything  has  been  done  to  help  him  that 
can  be  done.  So,  when  you  look  into  the  face  of  some  man  on  the 
farthest  side  of  the  world,  and  because  of  some  touch  of  nature  or 
of  God  that  reveals  your  kinship  the  feeling  suddenly  comes  over 
you,  "  This  man  is  my  brother,"  then  you  are  going  to  toil  for 
that  man  and  leave  no  stone  unturned  to  bring  to  him  the  help  he 
needs.  This  was  the  spirit  of  Christ.  He  did  not  help  men  from 
a  sense  of  duty  merely;  he  had  got  beyond  that;  he  helped  men 
because  when  he  looked  at  their  distress  there  rose  within  his  heart 
a  great  unconquerable  love  that  possessed  him  and  acted  through 
his  hands  and  spoke  through  his  lips.  He  could  feel  men  were 
his  brothers,  even  though  they  scourged  him  and  mocked  him  and 
nailed  him  to  the  cross.  This  was  the  passion  of  Christ  for  the 
world,  this  great  instinctive  consciousness  of  brotherhood.  The 
fatherhood  of  God  is  just  as  necessary  today,  and  the  command 


90  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

of  Christ  also,  as  a  beginning;  but  at  last  we  are  beginning  to 
really  feel  the  brotherhood  which  he  commanded  us  to  express. 
The  spirit  of  Christ  has  entered  our  hearts,  and  when  we  see  a 
brother  man,  white,  black,  red,  or  yellow,  who  is  wounded  in  soul, 
deceived,  helpless,  and  in  darkness,  that  great  instinctive  passion 
begins  to  rise  up  in  our  souls  and  urge  us  resistlessly  forward  to 
give  him  help.  We  cannot  stand  apart  and  look  on.  The  third 
great  motive,  then,  is  the  Compulsion  of  Universal  Brotherhood. 
It  is  this  which  is  in  the  heart  of  the  Church  of  Christ  today. 

The  Aim  of  Missions. 
We  come  now  to  the  aim  of  the  missionary  of  today.  Once  it 
may  have  been  the  aim  of  the  foreign  missionary  to  induce  indi- 
viduals here  and  there  to  accept  a  certain  creed;  he  was  content 
with  this.  This  does  not  satisfy  us  today  because  we  know  there 
are  men  here  who  accept  the  whole  Westminster  Confession  and 
the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  and  yet  are  cruel  to  their  employees, 
dishonest  in  their  relations  with  government,  and  unkind  to  their 
own  families;  and  we  are  convinced  that  these  men  are  no  nearer 
God  than  the  creedless  savage,  if  as  near.  There  was  a  time  when 
the  functions  of  the  missionary  ended  with  the  saving  of  individual 
souls  from  future  torment;  there  was  a  time  in  the  world  when 
the  aim  of  a  Christian  was  to  get  his  soul  saved  once  and  then  to 
wall  it  up  in  a  convent  cell  where  no  earthly  contamination  could 
again  defile  it.  Sometimes  we  wish  we  could  still  hold  this  view. 
But  today  we  are  convinced  that  a  man  is  not  truly  saved  who 
cannot  treat  his  own  family  with  kindness,  or  be  honest  and  true 
in  all  his  relations  with  other  men.  We  are  not  interested  in 
saving  men's  souls  and  leaving  them  to  abuse  their  relatives  and 
defraud  their  neighbors  while  they  continue  to  make  pious  prayers 
in  religious  meetings.  The  aim  which  we  have  in  view  today  is 
the  salvation  of  the  community,  not  of  the  individual  alone.  If 
it  were  possible  to  convert  each  individual  soul,  and  then  seal  them 
all  up  in  separate  glass  cases,  to  be  kept  till  the  day  of  judgment, 
missions  would  be  an  easy  matter.  When  these  souls  are  con- 
tinually meeting,  day  after  day,  in  the  little  frictions  of  family  life, 
in  the  little  antagonisms  of  the  social  order  and  the  struggle  of 
business  life,  it  is  a  very  different  matter  to  make  them,  in  all  these 
relationships,  maintain  the  spirit  of  Christ,  so  that  those  who 
look  at  the  community  life  will  say,  "  This  is  a  Christian  family, 
a  Christian  city,  ;i  Christian  nation."     The  missionary  today  can- 


NEW    MOTIVES    AND    CHANCED    PURPOSES    [N     MISSIONS.  91 

not  be  satisfied  with  the  conversion  of  any  individual  until  in  all 
his  relations  with  other  men  he  expresses  the  spirit-  of  love  and 
truth  which  is  the  spirit  of  Christ.  We  have  not  accomplished 
this  here  in  America  yet.  We  are  fighting  the  same  battle  on  the 
home  field  and  abroad;  the  great  question  in  each  city  and  each 
community  is,  "  Shall  this  community  be  possessed  by  Christ  and 
his  spirit,  or  by  commercialism,  selfishness,  and  the  worship  of  the 
almighty  dollar?  "  Every  community  is  organized  around  the  idea 
of  a  god  of  some  kind.  This  god  governs  them  and  gives  to  them 
their  ideals.  In  the  Fiji  Islands  the  difficulty  was  not  so  much 
that  the  men  were  any  more  brutal  by  nature  than  we;  it  was 
their  gods  that  were  brutal,  their  ideals  were  cruel.  A  chief  there 
nerved  himself  with  the  same  effort  of  will  to  slaughter  human 
beings  and  crush  out  every  particle  of  mercy  as  that  with  which 
we  nerve  ourselves  to  some  high  moral  effort.  When,  as  was  the 
case  with  one  chief,  he  knocked  his  wife  on  the  head  and  killed 
her  and  cooked  her,  it  was  not  that  it  was  easy;  it  was  hard.  It 
was  the  ideal  of  the  cruel  chief  that  he  was  seeking  to  realize. 
This  ideal  organized  the  community.  Now  it  is  the  spirit  of  Christ 
that  organizes  every  community  in  the  Fiji  Islands;  it  is  Christ 
who  is  their  ideal.  In  all  their  relations  they  are  trying  to  be  like 
him.  The  community  has  been  saved.  It  is  not  merely  that  one 
individual  here  and  there  has  been  plucked  from  the  flames  of  hell. 
A  new  social  order  has  been  produced. 

It  is  this  which  China  and  Japan  are  demanding  today,  some 
religion  which  will  save  their  industrial  and  national  life.  One 
statesman  after  another  is  saying:  "  Buddhism  is  a  religion  of  the 
past;  Confucianism,  though  high  in  its  moral  tone,  lacks  vitality;  it 
cannot  reach  the  common  man;  we  must  get  from  the  West  some 
religion  that  has  in  it  the  vital  power  which  will  save  the  community 
or  we  are  lost."  It  is  not  so  much  a  question  of  sending  a  man  to  an 
individual  Chinaman  and  telling  him  that  he  must  change  his  form 
of  religion  or  be  lost;  the  question  of  today  is:  "  Are  we  able  to 
supply  these  Eastern  nations  who  feel  that  their  old  religions  are 
failing,  and  that  their  communal  and  national  life  is  lacking  in 
power  and  on  the  verge  of  disintegration,  a  religion  which  will  save 
them  and  fill  them  with  that  spirit  of  love  and  of  service  to  God 
and  to  man  which  alone  can  produce  peace  and  happiness  and 
progress?  " 

New  methods  have  also  been  added,  as  well  as  new  aims,  to 
the  old  one  with  which  that  little  group  first  set  out.     The  first 


92  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

method  of  the  missionary  was  to  preach,  to  tell  the  message  of 
Christ's  love,  to  express  his  spirit  in  words.  Today  men  demand 
something  more,  they  become  a  little  suspicious  of  those  who  only 
express  their  religion  in  words.  They  do  not  believe  in  the  love 
of  a  man  who  meets  some  poor  wretch  in  distress  and  talks  about 
his  love  for  him  and  his  soul,  but  will  not  do  the  smallest  thing  to 
help  his  present  need.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  Dr.  Grenfell  has 
gained  such  a  hold  on  those  ordinarily  not  interested  in  missions. 
He  has  other  ways  of  expressing  Christian  love  than  by  mere 
words.  The  important  thing  is,  of  course,  to  make  a  man  feel  the 
love  of  God  in  Christ.  When  Jesus  sent  out  his  disciples  to  pro- 
claim the  coming  of  God's  kingdom,  he  said  to  them:  "  Heal  the 
sick,  raise  the  dead,  cast  out  devils."  By  their  deeds  they  were 
to  express  the  power  and  love  of  God's  kingdom.  The  new 
method  which  missions  are  adding  to  the  old  one  of  preaching  is 
the  expression  of  love  in  deeds.  Through  hospitals  and  schools 
and  industrial  work,  through  the  medium  of  daily  toil  and  social 
life,  the  modern  missionary  is  continually  expressing  in  a  tangible 
way  the  love  of  Christ  and  the  coming  of  God's  kingdom;  and  the 
gospel  which  he  thus  preaches  is  gaining  a  vital  hold  upon  some 
hearts  which  the  mere  word  could  never  reach. 

The  Test  of  Missions. 

What  is  the  test  which  the  world  applies  to  missions  today? 
It  is  certainly  not  the  number  of  converts  that  is  made.  The 
world  knows  it  is  not  so  hard  to  secure  names  on  a  mission  roll. 
The  difficult  thing  in  China  just  now  is  to  keep  men  who  are  not 
fit  to  join  out  of  the  church.  What  the  world  asks  is,  "  What 
change  has  the  missionary  produced  in  the  life  and  character  of 
his  convert?  —  is  he  more  like  Christ?  "  Travelers  are  continually 
decrying  missions  because  they  claim  they  fail  to  make  the  natives 
any  happier  or  to  give  them  any  higher  standard  of  character. 
It  is  popular  to  talk  against  missions  and  to  say  that  all  their 
converts  are  rice  Christians  in  search  of  money.  In  Hong  Kong 
I  heard  one  young  man  talking  after  this  fashion  to  several 
travelers.  I  asked  him  if  it  were  truly  as  he  said.  He  hesitated 
and  then  answered,  "  I  suppose  I  ought  to  believe  in  mission  con- 
verts, for  one  saved  my  life  once."  He  had  been  knocked  over- 
board while  steering  a  junk  down  stream  in  the  winter  time;  he 
was  taken  on  board  nearly  frozen,  and  it  was  then  that  a  native 
came  forward  and  stripped  off  his  own  clothing  to  put  on  this 


NEW    MOTIVES   AND    CHANGED    PURPOSES    IN    MISSIONS.  93 

stranger  to  keep  him  warm.  All  night  the  Chinaman  shivered  in 
his  thin  undergarments.  When  the  Englishman  looked  for  him 
next  day  he  found  that  he  had  gone  away  without  even  a  thought 
of  a  reward.  He  was  a  Christian  convert  and  had  done  what  he 
did  for  Christ's  sake.  If  a  man  whose  life  has  been  saved  through 
the  self-sacrifice  of  a  Christian  convert  will  announce  to  travelers 
that  all  converts  are  rice  Christians  we  may  judge  of  the  preva- 
lence and  value  of  such  talk.  It  is  this  transformation  of  char- 
acter which  commends  missions  to  the  world.  When  we  see  men, 
once  brutal  cannibals,  engaged  in  every  atrocity  of  lust  and 
murder,  transformed  into  humble,  kindly  men  whose  only  aim 
is  to  express  the  Christian  spirit  of  love,  as  I  have  seen  them  with 
my  own  eyes,  we  then  realize  that  in  missions  is  the  one  great 
power  to  transform  the  world,  the  one  thing  which  all  men  every- 
where have  need  of  for  their  happiness  and  peace  and  progress. 
We  see,  then,  that  the  old  missionary  motive  has  been  broadening 
and  deepening  in  the  hearts  of  men  until  all  the  world  feels  to  a 
certain  extent  this  sense  of  cosmopolitan  responsibility,  this  com- 
pulsion of  universal  brotherhood.  We  see  a  new  and  greater  aim 
in  missions,  the  salvation  not  merely  of  the  individual,  but  of  the 
community.  We  are  to  preach,  not  to  individuals,  but  to  nations, 
and  baptize  them.  We  understand  that  this  must  be  done  not  in 
one  way  alone,  by  words,  but  all  along  the  path  of  life  by  helpful 
deeds.  We  know  that  the  only  test  we  can  apply  is  that  of  Jesus 
Christ,  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  And  we  today 
can  thank  God  that  our  faith  in  Christ  is  founded  not  upon  tradi- 
tion or  dogma,  but  upon  that  which  our  own-eyes  have  seen  of  his 
power  to  transform  individuals  and  communities  and  nations  into 
the  likeness  of  the  sons  of  God.  This  is  the  victory  that  over- 
comes the  world,  even  our  faith,  that  Christianity  is  the  only 
power  known  among  men  adequate  to  save  not  merely  the  indi- 
vidual but  the  nation,  to  redeem  not  merely  a  few  families  but 
the  whole  organized  social  order  of  mankind. 


94  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THIS  ANNIVERSARY. 

Rev.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis,  D.D., 

Pastor  of  Plymouth  Congregational  Church,  Brooklyn. 

The  completion  of  one  hundred  years  since  Mills  and  his  com- 
panions met  here  is  an  event  of  world-wide  interest.  On  this 
Wednesday  a  thousand  public  men  of  this  country  assemble  here 
in  Williamstown,  beside  a  monument  that  marks  the  site  of  the 
Haystack  Prayer  Meeting.  London  celebrates  by  an  all-day 
meeting  in  the  City  Temple.  There  will  be  meetings  and  addresses 
in  Honolulu  and  Yokohama,  in  Shanghai  and  in  Bangkok,  in 
Madras  and  Bombay,  and  the  world-wide  influence  of  this  move- 
ment fully  justifies  a  world-wide  interest.  From  the  view  point 
of  material  force,  the  sailing  of  that  battleship  to  Cuba  was  a 
more  dramatic  event.  But  measured  by  relations  to  the  welfare 
of  the  family  of  man,  the  whole  Spanish  War  will  receive  but  a 
chapter,  where  history  will  give  a  volume  to  the  place  of  the 
American  Board  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Six  years  have  now 
passed  since  the  new  century  began.  These  years  have  fully 
sufficed  for  assembling,  ranking,  and  classifying  the  great  events 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  retrospect,  we  discern  that  the 
great  political  events  were  the  expansion  of  England,  the  passing 
of  Napoleon,  the  unification  of  Germany,  and  the  new  Italy. 
The  great  reform  movements  were  the  emancipation  of  the  millions 
of  serfs  in  Russia,  and  millions  of  slaves  in  the  South  and  in  the 
English  colonies.  The  great  events  for  liberty  and  democracy  are 
diverse  and  immeasurable.  For  democracy  has  won, —  educa- 
tional democracy  through  the  public  schools,  political  democracy 
through  universal  suffrage,  industrial  democracy  through  freedom 
of  contract,  ecclesiastical  democracy,  in  that  every  man  is  his 
own  priest  toward  God. 

Invisible  Forces. 

Nor  must  we  forget  the  influence  of  tools  upon  man's  progress 
during  that  wonderful  century,  —  the  engine  that  carries  his  goods 
swiftly;  the  cable,  that  carries  his  news  swiftly;  the  ship  that 
brings  distant  continents  near;  electricity  in  all  its  uses,  and  the 
X-ray.     All  these  five  realms  of  progress  appeal  to  the  eye,  are 


TIIK    SIGNIFICANCE    OF   THIS   ANNIVERSARY.  95 

obvious  to  all  observers,  and  with  much  noi.se  make  themselves 
known.  But  for  the  scholar,  trained  to  weigh  movements  and 
measure  men,  a  large  place  must  be  given  in  the  history  of  the 
century  to  the  movement  in  foreign  missions,  that  has  gathered 
up  and  included  within  itself  reform,  emancipation  of  childhood 
and  women,  schools,  hospitals,  commerce,  physical  welfare  of 
tribes,  new  literatures,  better  laws,  organized  government.  Mate- 
rial forces,  called  battleships,  bulk  larger  than  these,  but  the 
invisible  spiritual  forces  go  farther,  last  longer,  and  make  cannon 
seem  contemptible  and  paltry.  In  cold  countries  men  sometimes 
build  palaces  of  ice  for  some  public  function.  In  the  hour  when 
beautiful  women  and  brilliant  military  bands  assemble  for  winter 
festival,  the  water,  manifest  in  blocks  of  ice,  seems  very  imposing. 
But  would  you  know  the  real  power  of  water,  wait  until  it  becomes 
invisible.  Then  lift  your  eyes  to  the  western  sunset,  where  colors 
of  gold  and  rose  are  revealed  by  this  invisible  vapor;  watch  the 
raindrop  redden  in  the  purple  flow  of  grape  and  the  crimson 
drops  of  pomegranate,  or  see  it  tossed  by  a  harvester  in  sheaves 
of  grain.  Then,  in  what  water  does  through  its  invisible  workings. 
do  we  know  its  place  in  nature  and  its  contributions  to  man's 
happiness.  Therefore,  historians  often  pass  by  an  engine,  a  can- 
non, and  a  battleship,  to  note  and  measure  some  movement  like 
that  to  be  celebrated  by  this  Centennial  Anniversary. 

Humble,  indeed,  the  origin  of  this  world-wide  enterprise. 
Long  centuries  ago,  Christianity  set  forth  from  a  manger  at  Bethle- 
hem and  journeyed  like  a  beautiful  civilization  around  the  earth. 
And  this  modern  movement  started  with  a  group  of  five  under- 
graduates, assembled  in  the  shade  of  a  haystack,  on  an  August 
afternoon.  All  five  students  were  under  twenty  years  of  age. 
All  were  inexperienced,  not  one  had  wealth,  and  yet  they  planned 
the  most  audacious  enterprise.  One  of  them,  Mills,  had  been 
studying  the  progress  of  Christianity  for  eighteen  centuries.  He 
noticed  that  it  had  moved  in  concentric  circles.  He  saw  that 
oftentimes  one  missionary,  landing  in  a  barbarous  country,  had 
soon  changed  the  religion  of  the  new  land.  Young  Mills,  there- 
fore, proposed  to  his  four  friends  that  they  organize  a  society  to 
carry  Christianity  to  peoples  bej^ond  the  Pacific.  There  were 
one  billion,  he  thought,  who  knew  nothing  about  Christ's  teach- 
ings of  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  He 
proposed  to  assault  barbarism,  ignorance,  and  superstition,  en- 
trenched in  these  thousand  millions. 


96  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

Humanly  speaking,  it  looked  like  hurling  feathers  at  some 
granite  mountain,  or  sending  five  arrows  forth  against  the  north 
and  Arctic  wind.  One  of  the  young  men,  Loomis,  argued  that 
what  was  needed  was  a  crusade,  and  an  army  to  butcher  the 
"  unspeakable  Turk,"  after  which  missions  would  have  some 
chance.  But  Mills  stood  for  non-resistance,  the  gospel  of  peace 
and  education.  He  pronounced  this  motto,  "  We  can,  if  we  will." 
Soon  another  one  was  added,  "  Whatever  is  right  is  practicable." 
They  then  knelt  down  and  consecrated  themselves  to  the  task 
of  conquering  ignorance  and  barbarism,  buttressed  by  a  thousand 
millions.  And  history  has  fully  justified  their  courage  and  faith. 
There  are  now  eleven  thousand  five  hundred  missionaries  in  these 
lands;  meetings  in  five  continents  this  Wednesday  celebrate  their 
centennial.  London  itself,  with  its  throbbing  interests,  will 
assemble  to  recall,  not  an  English  event,  but  an  American  cen- 
tennial. These  boys  had  no  guns,  but  they  fired  a  shot  that  went 
round  the  world.  And  today  historians  understand  that  their 
movement  fills  a  very  large  place  in  the  history  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

Concrete  Examples. 

Doubtless  a  great  enterprise  is  best  set  forth  by  an  appeal  to  the 
eye.  Witness  the  Tuskegee  method  of  floats,  portraying  the  old 
cabin  and  slave,  and  the  new  cottage  and  industrial  life  of  the 
young  Negro;  witness  our  world's  fairs,  with  their  exhibition  of 
tools,  arts,  industries,  architecture.  Fortunately,  it  is  not  expe- 
dient to  use  a  float  illustrating  the  cannibalism  our  missionaries 
found  in  the  South  Seas.  We  cannot  drag  a  Juggernaut  car  down 
the  main  street.  A  picture  setting  forth  the  burning  of  a  hundred 
widows  at  a  rajah's  funeral  would  be  unseemly,  and  I  will  refrain 
from  dwelling  upon  Sydney  Smith's  baked  boy  on  the  sideboard 
of  the  African  chief  who  entertained  the  English  teacher.  Indeed, 
this  church  and  these  heights  would  be  too  small  for  the  floats 
and  the  exhibition.  Is  it  literature  that  you  are  thinking  about? 
There  is  no  civilization  or  progress  without  language.  Your 
Webster's  dictionary  is  the  gateway  to  commerce  and  trade  for 
eighty  millions  of  people.  Well,  Robert  Morrison  worked  twenty 
years  on  a  Chinese  dictionary,  that  bulks  as  large  as  four  of 
Webster's  Unabridged,  and  beside  that  dictionary,  these  mission- 
aries will  place  three  hundred  dictionaries  and  grammars,  by 
which  we  have  opened  the  doorway  to  trade,  knowledge,   and 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE   OF   THIS   ANNIVERSARY.  97 

progress  to  eight  hundred  millions  of  people.  Is  it  reform?  and 
succor  for  slaves,  children,  women  in  zenanas,  savages  in  their 
huts?  The  missionaries  in  India  worked  forty  years  before  they 
succeeded  in  compelling  from  councils  and  governor-generals  the 
edict  against  the  burning  of  widows,  the  Juggernaut  car,  the 
strangling  of  unwelcome  female  babes,  the  child  marriages,  while 
these  are  but  a  few  of  the  thousand  reform  movements  they  have 
promoted.  Sir  Henry  Maine's  three  volumes  on  ancient  law  and 
early  society  and  institutions  make  a  pile  of  books  as  high  as  that. 
But  Sir  Henry's  volumes  gather  up  the  legal  achievements  of  two 
thousand  years  passed.  There  are  three  volumes  just  completed 
bearing  the  title  "  Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress," 
and  these  volumes  make  a  bulk  twice  as  great  and  far  more 
important  than  Sir  Henry  Maine's  volumes.  The  abuses  these 
missionaries  have  fought,  and  the  reforms  they  have  achieved 
as  to  hygiene  and  water  supply,  principles  of  sanitation,  safe- 
guarding the  lives  of  infant  girls  and  children  in  general,  their 
work  for  women  in  China  and  India  and  Africa,  their  educational 
movements,  their  hospitals  —  why,  this  hour  would  not  suffice 
for  simply  reading  the  names  of  the  measures  that  they  have 
fought  to  a  success.  Is  it  China  you  are  thinking  of?  The 
empress  dowager  sent  a  member  of  her  cabinet  to  assist  in  the 
laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  a  new  missionary  building  in  Peking, 
and  gave  ten  thousand  taels.  Last  summer  a  Chinese  viceroy 
sent  out  a  proclamation  ordering  the  New  Testament  to  be  studied 
as  a  classic.  The  argument  in  his  proclamation  runs  like  this: 
"  The  Americans  are  more  truly  heathen  than  we  are.  They 
make  treaties  with  us  to  treat  Chinamen  admitted  to  the  United 
States  with  all  the  privileges  of  Americans.  Then  they  break 
the  most  solemn  treaties  through  their  mobs,  showing  that  they 
are  heathen,  and  not  the  equal  of  Chinese.  And  yet  they  have 
made  wonderful  progress.  How  is  it  that  inferior  Americans  have 
surpassed  superior  Chinamen?  "  The  viceroy  says  the  explana- 
tion must  be  in  their  superior  religion.  He  has,  therefore,  ordered 
the  study  of  the  Bible  and  its  use  in  the  civil  service  merit  exami- 
nations. 

Is  it  India  you  are  thinking  of?  Lord  Lawrence,  the  governor- 
general,  said  that  the  missionaries  have  done  more  for  India  than 
the  East  India  Company,  the  civil  service  method  in  India's 
government,  or  all  other  men  and  forces  put  together.  Is  it  sav- 
age Africa  you  are  recalling?     Only  a  year  ago.  on  the  spot  where 


98  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

Stanley's  chief  sacrificed  three  thousand  men  to  accompany  the 
spirit  of  the  dying  king,  there  is  now  a  cathedral,  built  by  these 
Christian  natives,  that  is  four  hundred  feet  long.  They  have 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  young  men  and  women  in  their  normal- 
training  school,  and  a  railroad,  a  thousand  miles  long,  to  the  sea. 
Today  we  have  eleven  thousand  missionaries,  sixty-five  thousand 
native  preachers  (all  the  preachers  in  the  United  States  are 
natives!),  two  thousand  six  hundred  and  seventy-five  stations,  and 
when  you  think  of  these  stations,  these  are  cities  of  light,  these 
are  centers  of  education  and  reform.  Truly  this  is  a  marvelous 
record  for  foreign  missions!  It  more  than  surpasses  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  apostles  in  the  heroic  age.  It  is  the  brightest  page 
on  the  history  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Influence  on  Commerce. 

Even  from  the  practical  view  point,  this  movement  has  justified 
itself  to  merchants  and  manufacturers.  The  governor-general  of 
India  once  urged  the  East  India  Company  to  change  its  method 
and  begin  by  sending  foreign  missionaries  into  each  province  where 
it  wished  to  develop  trade.  He  argued  that  they  were  buying 
raw  material  in  India  for  England,  and  from  England  coming 
back  to  India  with  empty  bottoms.  He  said  that  the  only  prov- 
inces that  would  buy  English  goods  that  were  costly,  were  the 
ports  where  the  missionaries  had  wakened  the  people  up  to  a 
hunger  for  the  comforts  and  conveniences  that  the  missionaries 
described.  And  the  argument  is  very  simple.  What  if  the 
American  News  Company  should  send  a  shipload  of  books  to 
Borneo?  The  people  cannot  read.  What  if  they  send  a  ship- 
load of  typewriters  to  Western  Africa?  The  people  cannot  write. 
What  if  you  send  a  cargo  of  sewing  machines  to  the  Hottentots? 
Well,  they  do  not  wear  clothes.  Wealth  comes  through  selling 
manufactured  goods.  But  savages  do  not  want  these  conveniences. 
Now,  think  of  what  this  American  Board  has  done.  Once  they 
sent  out  a  band  to  civilize  a  South  Sea  island.  In  the  band  were 
six  carpenters,  two  blacksmiths,  two  bricklayers,  one  architect, 
two  tailors,  two  shoemakers,  two  weavers,  two  farmers,  one  phy- 
sician, four  preachers.  In  forty  years  after  they  landed,  one  ship 
a  week  unloaded  its  cargo  at  that  port — that  tells  the  whole 
story.  Since  then,  the  trade  from  New  England  ports  alone  has 
yielded  enough  profit  to  merchants  in  a  single  year  to  pay  for  the 
entire  missionary  enterprise. 


Till;    SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THIS    ANNIVERSARY.  99 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson  understood  this.  You  remember  that 
Stevenson  speaks  of  James  Chalmers,  the  missionary,  as  his  ideal 
man, —  that  Chalmers  who  made  plans  to  have  himself  landed  on 
a  cannibal  island,  and  was  finally  murdered  there.  He  cabled 
home  for  ten  gross  of  tomahawks  and  five  of  butcher  knives,  these 
being  coin  current  among  the  savages.  Well,  an  English  earl 
was  encircling  the  world  in  his  yacht,  trying  to  escape  from  his 
cynicism  and  disgust  and  weariness  of  life.  Landing,  he  called 
on  the  old  chief,  and  said  he  was  sorry  that  he  and  his  people  had 
become  Christians.  "  The  Bible  is  an  exploded  book,"  he  said; 
"  nobody  believes  in  God  now.  These  are  the  things  that  have 
helped  you,"  said  the  earl,  pointing  to  his  ship.  The  old  chief 
looked  at  the  blasphemer.  "  The  missionaries  built  that  school- 
house,"  he  said;  "  taught  us  how  to  build  all  those  cottages,  gave 
us  these  sugar  plantations,  gave  us  our  clothing,  our  books,  our 
everything.  Why,  if  you  had  come  here  forty  years  ago,  when  I 
was  a  boy,  just  before  these  missionaries  came,  we  would  have 
roasted  you  and  served  you  up  on  sea  shell  —  that  is,  if  you  weren't 
such  a  tough  old  sinner!  "  Then  the  old  chief  responded  to  the 
cynical  earl's  statement  that  his  ship  and  he  himself  were  the 
things  that  had  helped  these  savages.  He  told  the  earl  that  to 
the  west  were  the  New  Hebrides  Islands,  where  the  people  were 
naked,  used  poisoned  arrows,  and  were  cannibals,  and  suggested 
that  he  take  his  yacht  and  go  out  and  civilize  them.  So  quickly 
did  he  puncture  the  hypocrisy  of  the  cynical,  pleasure-loving, 
ne'er-do-an}' thing,  agnostic  Englishman!  Little  wonder  that  the 
missionary  Chalmers  seems  to  stand  over  against  ordinary  men 
as  gold  is  over  against  dross,  as  a  loom  or  an  engine  is  over  against 
a  soap  bubble,  or  a  mountain  is  over  a  drifting  cloud.  Little 
wonder  that  Lord  Lawrence  said  that  "  the  foreign  missionaries 
of  India  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  whose  shoe  latchets  I  am  not 
worthy  to  stoop  down  and  unloose." 

The  Heroism  of  Foreign  Missions. 

But  this  centennial  of  the  American  Board  recovers  our  faith 
in  heroism,  freshens  our  ardor  for  noble  living,  revives  our  confi- 
dence in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  righteousness  and  justice  and 
law  and  liberty.  Of  late  the  increase  of  mammonism  and  the 
breakdown  of  leaders  in  high  places  have  lent  depression  to  many 
public  men.  Much  has  been  said  about  the  coming  decline  of  our 
institutions.     Liberty  has  failed  in  the  government  of  great  cities. 


100  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

And  those  prophets  of  ill  tidings  have  been  very  loud  of  late.  But 
heroism  plainly  is  not  d}dng.  The  history  of  foreign  missions  will 
make  a  new  chapter  for  Carlyle's  "  Hero  Worship."  The  eleventh 
chapter  of  Hebrews  was  the  roll-call  of  great  hearts  for  the  early 
church.  When  Paul  was  stoned  and  dragged  through  the  streets 
of  Lystra  and  left  for  dead,  the  next  chapter  says  that  when  his 
wounds  were  bound  up,  he  straightway  returned  unto  Lystra. 
Because  the  adversaries  were  many,  he  went  back.  Well,  our 
missionaries  were  murdered  in  China  several  years  ago.  But 
when  the  officers  of  the  mission  boards  came  together,  our  brightest 
and  bravest  young  men  from  our  colleges  came  forward,  and  asked 
to  be  sent  straight  to  these  fields  where  the  ground  was  still  red 
with  the  blood  of  these  young  martyrs.  The  London  Missionary 
Society  lost  thirty  missionaries,  and  sixty  young  men  from  Aber- 
deen and  Edinburgh,  from  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  competed 
for  the  most  dangerous  places.  Last  winter,  in  the  Students' 
Missionary  Conference  in  a  southern  city,  there  were  three  thou- 
sand in  the  audience.  One  young  man  from  Calcutta  described 
the  work  in  India.  He  said  that  Madras  and  Calcutta  and  Bom- 
bay had  thousands  of  young  men  that  now  speak  English,  that 
there  were  universities  and  colleges,  all  the  comforts  and  con- 
veniences, book  shops  and  hospitals,  the  coming  and  going  of 
ships,  but  he  said,  "  We  want  men  for  the  interior  of  India." 
There  the  people  are  half  starved,  nearly  naked;  there  are  child 
marriages,  there  infanticide;  the  murder  of  unwelcome  babes  is 
the  every-day  event.  There  life  is  lonely,  hideous,  revolting,  and 
yet  there,  in  one  lifetime,  a  group  of  brave  men  can  transform  a 
little  province.  He  made  the  picture  so  black  that  no  man  could 
undertake  the  task,  and  when  the  conference  was  through,  the 
finest  scholars  and  most  promising  young  collegians  present  came 
forward,  and  four  students  offered  themselves  to  every  one  that 
was  wanted. 

Heroism  is  not  dead  among  the  college  men  of  the  United  States. 
Never  was  patrician  courage  more  manifest.  Carlyle  understood. 
In  his  life  of  Cromwell  he  says  that  he  ranks  the  foreign  missionary 
and  his  convert  with  the  greatest  heroes  in  history.  It  is  in  his 
story  of  Kapiolani.  These  Christian  teachers  in  the  South  Seas 
brought  the  queen  to  faith  in  God  and  to  the  new  ideas  of  home, 
school,  government,  and  social  progress.  But  the  people  still 
worshiped  gods  whose  home  was  in  the  crater,  whose  column  of 
fire  was  on  the  sky.     So  the  missionary  and  the  queen  told  the 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE    OF   THIS   ANNIVERSARY.  101 

people  that  they  would  dare  the  native  god.  They  made  their 
way  to  the  foot  of  the  mountain.  The  people  shrieked,  wept, 
implored,  but  these  two  walked  bravely  on.  They  stood  on  the 
edge  of  the  crater,  breathing  the  sulphurous  gases.  The  queen 
hurled  stones  into  the  abyss  and  shouted  her  threats  and  denials. 
When  they  came  down  in  safety,  superstition  was  dead.  Carlyle 
says  that  a  Christian  missionary  slew  a  cult  in  that  hour,  and  that 
the  event  will  always  rank  in  history  with  Elijah  at  Mt.  Carmel 
and  the  Christian  convert  who  cut  down  the  sacred  oak  of  Thor 
for  Germany.  But  foreign  missions  have  produced  scores  of 
heroes  and  heroines  like  these.  The  history  of  missions  is  a  sky 
that  is  ablaze  with  light  that  will  shine  forever  and  forever. 

An  Appeal  to  Young  Men. 

Many  of  you  are  students,  new  to  the  city,  and  here  to  fit  your- 
selves for  your  lifework.  Standing  at  the  threshold,  let  me  urge 
you  to  lay  out  your  life  on  large  lines.  Do  not  be  deceived  by  the 
nearness  of  the  horizon,  and  do  not  fix  your  eyes  on  the  path  that 
leads  to  yonder  temple  of  fame;  but  look  up,  and  look  out,  and 
make  the  world  the  sphere  of  your  ambition.  Today,  there  are 
no  foreign  lands.  These  steamships  have  brought  distant  conti- 
nents so  near  that  they  are  anchored  just  outside  the  harbor  in 
New  York  and  San  Francisco.  Have  you  genius  in  finance? 
What  about  these  great  concessions  and  opportunities,  in  Peking 
and  Shanghai  and  Korea?  Do  you  intend  to  become  an  educator? 
Why  not  be  the  Horace  Mann  or  Thomas  Arnold  to  an  hundred 
millions  of  boys  and  girls  in  China?  Are  you  looking  forward  to 
surgery  and  medicine?  Why  not  found  a  system  of  hospitals, 
under  royal  patronage,  in  Burma  or  Siam  or  Korea?  Are  you 
looking  forward  to  the  ministry?  A  thousand  adults  made  pro- 
fession of  their  faith  in  a  single  church  last  year  in  China.  Do 
you  want  an  audience?  In  Korea,  not  simply  are  the  churches 
filled,  but  with  warm  weather  last  spring  our  missionaries  took 
out  the  windows  and  the  doors,  that  the  crowds  might  hear,  and, 
with  the  summer,  went  into  the  open  air,  where  their  hearers 
were  limited  only  by  the  utmost  reach  of  the  human  voice.  Our 
foreign  societies,  eight  in  number,  reported  at  the  beginning  of 
last  year  a  million  applicants,  who  are  preparing  for  membership 
in  the  churches. 

A  great  forward  movement  is  sweeping  over  the  world.     And 


102  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

the  foreign  missionary  is  becoming  the  world  man.  You  who 
heard  those  Chinese  ambassadors  at  the  banquet  in  the  Waldorf- 
Astoria  last  winter,  or  who  read  their  addresses  in  various  cities, 
remember  how  they  criticised  the  American  sailors  with  their 
drunkenness,  the  rich  American  globe-trotters,  selfish  young 
commercial  travelers,  and,  above  all,  the  commerce  of  merchants 
that  forced  opium  upon  them  and  sold  shiploads  of  whiskey.  But 
they  praised  the  missionary,  with  his  school  and  hospital,  his 
reform  and  his  self-sacrifice.  The  historian  has  always  praised 
him.  Be  the  reasons  what  they  may,  he  has  gotten  the  first  place 
for  himself  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  history  of  every  nation.  A 
foreign  missionary,  says  Guizot,  named  Paul,  brought  democracy 
into  Europe.  The  first  page  in  the  history  of  Germany  begins 
with  the  coming  of  a  Christian  teacher  into  the  forests  of  the 
Rhine.  The  history  of  Norway  and  Sweden  begins,  that  it  was 
in  such  and  such  a  year  that  a  group  of  Christian  missionaries 
landed  near  what  is  now  Stockholm.  The  history  of  England 
begins:  "  In  the  year  590  a  missionary  named  Augustine  landed 
on  the  coast  near  Hastings."  The  history  of  the  United  States 
began  when  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  landed.  Who  opened  the  history 
of  Africa?  David  Livingstone,  the  missionary!  From  whom 
did  England  receive  South  Africa?  At  the  hands  of  Moffat,  the 
missionary.  Who  is  spoken  of  as  the  father  of  Burma?  Adoni- 
ram  Judson,  the  missionary.  Who  founded  the  little  republic  in 
Honolulu  and  gave  us  the  New  Hebrides?  These  missionaries 
who  were  the  forerunners  of  commerce,  law,  and  government. 
Don't  say  that  it  is  a  slow  work.  Augustine,  in  590,  found  our 
Scotch  and  English  forefathers  cannibals,  and  they  put  off  bar- 
barism like  a  cast-off  garment,  and  rose  to  the  dignity  of  the  sons 
of  God,  within  a  generation.  Hottentots?  One  of  the  most 
eloquent  men  who  ever  preached  before  Queen  Victoria  was  a 
cannibal  chief  who,  within  fifteen  years  after  Moffat  redeemed 
him,  was  thrilling  great  audiences  in  London. 

The  simple  fact  is,  that  man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God,  and 
that  often  a  savage  in  ten  summers  has  gone  from  a  wild  skin 
garment  to  the  level  of  a  leader  and  reformer  among  his  people. 
Not  enough  religion  for  home  consumption?  Do  you  say  we  need 
it  all  for  our  own  land?  Christianity  is  kept  only  by  giving  away. 
Whatever  goes  to  foreign  missions  is  not  taken  away  from  home 
missions  —  it  is  only  taken  from  luxury  and  self-indulgence  and 
avarice.     The  best  way  to  make  Christianity  triumphant  at  home 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE   OF   THIS    ANNIVERSARY.  103 

is  to  .show  our  zeal  for  it  in  its  triumphs  abroad.  God  loves  the 
man  in  the  heart  of  China  just  as  much  as  he  loves  you.  He  is 
working  just  as  hard  for  him  as  for  you.  If  American  churches 
had  not  taken  up  the  plans  of  that  group  of  American  students  a 
hundred  years  ago,  there  would  have  been  no  American  churches 
today.  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world."  Who  are  you,  as  a  disciple 
of  Jesus  Christ,  who  dare  to  challenge  this  command,  or  say  that 
he  made  a  mistake?  What  the  world  wants  is  not  simply  knowl- 
edge of  God,  and  of  a  Saviour,  but  it  wants  power  that  shall  hurl 
that  knowledge  across  the  world.  This  is  the  crowning  glory  of 
Christianity.  To  a  perfect  truth,  an  ideal  man,  and  a  perfect  God, 
it  adds  the  power  to  propagate  these  truths  throughout  the  world. 


104  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


THE  PRICE  OF  MISSIONARY  SUCCESS. 

A  Summary  of  the  Address  by  Rev.  Samuel  M.  Zwemer,  D.D., 

of  Arabia. 

"Now  I  rejoice  ...  to  fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the 
afflictions  of  Christ  in  my  flesh  for  his  body's  sake,  which  is  the 
church." 

The  price  is  as  old  as  Calvary,  and  will  never  change.  The 
apostle  Paul  called  on  himself  and  his  followers  to  pay  it,  even  as 
did  the  Christ.  The  sufferings  of  our  Lord  are  without  a  parallel 
and  yet  St.  Paul  speaks  of  them  as  penurious,  insufficient.  The 
meaning  for  us  is  that  we  also  are  to  lay  down  our  lives  for  others 
—  the  very  thing  that  all  missionary  service  means  —  sacrifice 
of  everything,  even  to  life,  to  fill  up  the  sufferings  of  Christ. 

There  was  never  a  church  built  for  Christ's  work,  or  a  new  land 
opened,  but  behind  them  lay  the  sufferings  of  the  builders  and  the 
pioneers. 

Paul  always  held  before  his  helpers  such  standards  of  work; 
he  never  allowed  them  to  shrink  from  the  path  of  duty  on  account 
of  suffering. 

If  we  feel  in  our  hearts  the  real  love  of  Christ,  we  shall  count 
everything  in  the  world  but  dross  compared  with  this  privilege 
of  suffering  for  Christ.  Paul  felt  nothing  was  a  sacrifice  if  he  only 
won  the  people  for  his  Christ. 

Are  we  willing  to  pay  the  price,  or  shall  we  sit  still?  There  is 
work  to  be  done,  not  only  in  the  lands  which  have  been  partly 
won,  but  in  the  parts  of  the  world  which  still  remain  untouched, 
a  monument  to  our  cowardice.  Shall  we  follow  Samuel  J.  Mills, 
not  to  mention  Jesus  Christ?  The  devotion  pledged  here  at  the 
haystack  will  be  lost  unless  we  go  forth  on  this  mission.  Shall  we 
grasp  this  opportunity  of  investing  our  lives,  the  only  life  that  we 
have?  Thousands  stand  back  because  they  are  not  prepared  to 
pay  the  cost  that  mission  work  demands.  This  is  the  best  place, 
the  best  time  in  our  life  to  make  the  decision,  and  to  say,  "  We 
can  do  it,  and,  Lord  and  Master  of  our  lives,  we  will." 


mission    PARK   SERVICE.  105 


MISSION  PARK  SERVICE. 

When  the  belfry  chimes  rung  out  again  in  the  early  afternoon, 
the  rain  had  ceased.  Tunes  that  suggested  the  familiar  hymns, 
"  Ye  Christian  heralds,  go,  proclaim,"  and  "  Come,  Thou  Almighty 
King,"  were  used  to  call  people  together  for  the  great  mass  meet- 
ing in  the  open  air.  They  nocked  to  Mission  Park  from  all  direc- 
tions. Soon  all  the  available  seats,  two  thousand  in  number, 
were  filled  and  several  hundred  people  left  standing. 
h  This  open-air  service  was  led  by  President  Capen.  A  prayer 
was  offered  by  Rev.  Arthur  Little,  D.D.,  which  seemed  to  ex- 
press the  feelings  of  thankfulness  and  reverence  and  missionary 
ardor  with  which  all  hearts  glowed. 

Dr.  Little  prayed  (in  part]  as  follows : 

"  Almighty  God,  our  heavenly  Father,  we  thank  thee  for  this 
welcome  burst  of  sunshine,  which  we  accept  as  a  token  of  thy  favor 
upon  the  services  of  this  impressive  hour. 

"  We  desire  to  make  sincere  confession  of  all  our  sins  and  grate- 
ful acknowledgments  of  all  thy  mercies. 

"  We  realize  that  the  place  on  which  we  stand  is  holy  ground, 
hallowed  by  the  prayers  and  tears  and  high  resolves  of  a  group  of 
young  men,  chosen  and  anointed  of  God  for  special  service. 
Make  it  impossible  for  any  of  us  to  say,  '  Verily  God  was  in  this 
place,  and  we  knew  it  not.' 

"  Help  us  to  realize  that  a  century  of  time  and  achievement 
finds  its  culmination  in  this  unprecedented  hour.  Quicken,  we 
entreat  thee,  our  memory;  chasten  our  imagination;  enkindle  our 
faith;  enlarge  our  vision;  so  that  our  waiting  hearts,  tremulous 
with  expectation,  may  become  responsive  to  the  inspiring  influ- 
ences and  messages  that  come  in  upon  us  from  both  worlds. 

"  May  we  find  in  this  cloud  of  witnesses  a  fine  incentive  to  nobler 
action.  We  give  thee  most  hearty  thanks,  our  heavenly  Father, 
for  the  Christian  homes  in  which  these  young  men  were  born;  for 
the  exalted  ideals  of  life  and  service  ever  before  them;  for  the 
atmosphere  of  prayer  which  was  native  to  them,  for  the  revivals 
in  the  academy  and  college,  under  whose  gracious  influences  these 
generous  purposes  of  self-sacrifice  for  Christ's  sake  were  born  and 
nurtured,  and  apart  from  which  the  deeds  we  recall  with  gratitude 
to  God  this  hour  would  have  been  impossible. 


106  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

"  Oh,  for  the  descent  upon  us,  while  we  tarry  here,  of  this  same 
gracious  Spirit  in  quickening  power!  Oh,  for  a  Pentecostal  bless- 
ing here  and  now!  Upon  this  college,  whose  name  will  be  forever 
linked,  in  sacred  associations,  with  this  hallowed  spot,  we  invoke 
thy  blessing. 

"  Grant,  our  heavenly  Father,  that  our  American  Board  may 
be  permanently  strengthened  and  enriched  by  the  fellowships  and 
testimonies  of  this  memorable  week.  Above  all,  help  us,  our 
God  and  Father,  to  remember  that  the  best  testimonial  to  the 
lives  of  these  young  men  will  consist  in  carrying  forward,  with 
passionate  earnestness,  the  work  for  which  they  would  willingly 
have  died. 

"  And  not  unto  us,  but  unto  Him  that  loved  us,  and  washed  us 
from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood,  and  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests 
unto  God  and  his  Father;  to  Him  be  glory  and  dominion  forever 
and  ever.     Amen." 

President  Hopkins  read  a  letter  of  greeting  from  Williams 
alumni,  sent  from  the  American  Bible  House  in  Constantinople, 
in  which  they  declared  that  the  returns  in  that  country  were  worth 
ten  times  the  expense.  Another  letter  was  read  from  Mr.  A.  E. 
Street,  of  China,  referring  to  the  fact  that  he  had  given  himself 
to  Christian  work  at  the  time  of  the  semi-centennial  in  Williams- 
town.  The  introductory  service  closed  with  a  stanza  of  the 
hymn  used  by  the  five  students  at  the  haystack: 

"  Let  all  the  heathen  writers  join 
To  form  one  perfect  book. 
Great  God,  if  once  compared  with  thine, 
How  mean  these  writings  look." 

Rev.  Arthur  Judson  Brown,  D.D.,  speaking  for  the  Presby- 
terians, turned  the  thoughts  of  his  hearers  from  what  had  already 
been  done,  to  the  things  yet  to  be  accomplished  in  the  next  one 
hundred  years. 

Here  and  there  in  the  crowd  were  converts  from  various  coun- 
tries in  their  native  dress.  Eight  of  them  were  afterwards  photo- 
graphed, with  President  Capen  standing  in  their  midst,  at  the 
Haystack  Monument.  At  this  service  they  sat  upon  the  platform 
and  each  one  arose  and  in  three  minutes  said  in  substance.  "  We 
are  the  fruits  of  the  '  Haystack  Prayer  Meeting.'  In  behalf  of 
our  people  who  sat  in  darkness,  but  now  see  the  light  of  Christ, 
we  thank  you  Americans."     This  common  message  was  spoken 


mission    PARK   SERVICE.  107 

in  a  variety  of  ways,  and  all  showed  much  ability  in  speaking. 
Of  the  two  Chinamen  who  spoke,  both  students  in  Yale  College, 
one  was  a  lineal  descendant  from  Confucius  and  could  trace  his 
descent  back  twenty-five  hundred  years.  The  other  young  man 
was  a  survivor  of  the  Boxer  uprising,  whose  father,  mother,  and 
brother  had  all  been  murdered,  together  with  the  majority  of  the 
Christians  in  his  native  city,  and  who,  himself,  had  suffered  almost 
every  form  of  persecution  except  death,  but  whose  faith  had  never 
once  wavered. 

The  addresses  of  these  native  converts  were  made  doubly  im- 
pressive by  the  presence  of  so  great  a  crowd,  assembled  at  the  very 
spot  where  Mills  gave  a  great  impetus  to  the  cause  of  American 
missions  to  non-Christian  lands.  The  "  kernels  "  cast  upon  the 
waters  so  long  ago  seemed  to  have  returned  "  after  many  days  " 
in  the  converts  who  spoke  at  this  meeting  and  the  many  thousand 
others  wrhom  they  represented. 


108  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

OPENING  ADDRESS. 
Hon.  Samuel  B.  Capen,  LL.D.,  President  of  the  American  Board. 

We  are  here  upon  consecrated  ground.  The  thought  of  a  little 
group  of  Williams  College  students  in  prayer  under  a  haystack 
on  this  very  spot  is  uppermost  in  our  mind.  Men  go  to  Waterloo, 
and  Bunker  Hill,  and  Gettysburg,  and  are  hushed  into  silence  at 
the  memory  of  the  awful  issues  that  were  there  decided.  But  the 
results  of  that  little  prayer  meeting  went  far  deeper  than  any  of 
these.  It  helped  materially  to  change  the  whole  thought  of  our 
nation  and  to  save  it  from  irreligion  and  skepticism.  It  put  noble 
service  for  others  over  against  the  materialism  of  that  day  which 
thought  only  of  self.  Its  very  audacity  was  a  challenge.  It 
broadened  the  horizon,  and  led  our  churches  to  see  their  responsi- 
bility for  the  whole  world  for  which  Christ  died.  So  far  as  America 
is  concerned,  trusteeship  for  the  world  was  here  born.  It  was  the 
very  beginning  of  efficient,  organized,  and  aggressive  foreign 
missionary  work  in  the  United  States.  It  was  a  movement  of 
young  men,  not  to  send  others,  but  personally  to  go  themselves. 
Much  of  the  missionary  work  before  this  was  fragmentary  and 
inefficient.  Men  had  been  sent  to  the  needy  parts  of  our  own 
land,  but  often  only  for  a  few  weeks  at  a  time.  For  pastors  to  do 
missionary  work  on  "  the  installment  plan  "  for  those  brief  periods, 
and  then  to  return  to  their  own  parishes,  was  almost  "  playing  at 
missions."  These  young  men  had  now  a  life  purpose  and  a 
mission  to  those  who  were  still  in  heathen  darkness.  When  that 
first  vessel  sailed  for  the  far  East,  they  went  out  into  the  unknown. 

The  prayer  meeting  resulted  in  putting  forces  at  work  in  India, 
Turkey,  Africa,  China,  Japan,  and  the  islands  of  the  sea,  which 
have  changed  and  are  changing  them  politically,  intellectually, 
and  spiritually.  The  influences  that  have  gone  out  from  this  spot 
have  altered  the  course  of  history  and  changed  the  map  of  the 
world. 

Here,  where  these  five  students  met  to  pray,  men  and  women 
have  journeyed  by  hundreds  from  all  over  our  land.  Brave 
missionaries  are  here  from  the  front,  representing  countries  then 
unexplored  and  practically  unknown.  Native  Christians  are  here, 
from  nations  that  are  coming  rapidly  from  darkness  to  light. 
Nearly  a  hundred  years  ago  Mills  declared,  "  Before  we  die,  our 


B 
a 
i  i 


OPENING    ADDRESS.  109 

influence  must  be  felt  on  the  other  side  of  the  world."  How- 
absurd  it  all  seemed!  Yes,  the  same  absurdity  as  when  a  little 
band  of  fishermen,  inspired  by  their  risen  Lord,  threw  themselves 
against  the  Roman  empire.  These  men  won  in  the  first  century. 
Mills  and  his  associates  won  in  the  nineteenth.  God  was  with  the 
latter  as  with  the  former.  In  the  great  passion  of  his  soul,  Mills 
burned  out  his  life  in  twelve  short  years  of  service,  but  some  of 
the  mighty  and  worldwide  results  of  that  life  and  work  we  are  to 
hear  about  in  the  exercises  of  this  afternoon. 


110  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 


THE  FUTURE  OF  MISSIONARY  WORK. 

Rev.  Arthur  Judson  Brown,  D.D., 

Secretary  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  New  York. 

A  son  of  Massachusetts,  with  sacred  memories  of  Congrega- 
tional parents,  bred  to  reverence  for  the  American  Board,  it  is  a 
great  privilege  to  bring  to  you  today  the  congratulations  of  the 
Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  your  nearest  blood- 
relation.  We  rejoice  in  your  noble  past.  We  share  your  inspi- 
ration on  this  memorable  occasion.  We  would  enter  with  you  into 
a  larger  consecration  for  the  future. 

Standing  on  a  spot  which  teems  with  historic  associations,  the 
temptation  is  strong  to  dwell  upon  the  glories  of  the  past.  But 
we  should  ill  use  this  hour  if  we  spent  it  merely  in  praising  what 
our  predecessors  did.  We  shall  best  enter  into  their  spirit  and 
follow  their  example,  if  we  consider  our  duty  as  they  considered 
theirs.  Like  them,  therefore,  let  us  look  today,  not  toward  the 
dead  past,  inspiring  as  it  is,  but  toward  the  living  future,  as  it  is 
interpreted  by  the  present  providences  of  God. 

Prophecy  is  hazardous.  Still,  the  missionary  as  well  as  the 
statesman,  the  general,  and  the  business  man,  must  try  to  fore- 
cast coming  events.  This  is  partly  to  prepare  for  them,  partly 
to  shape  them.  True,  God  makes  the  future,  but  God  expects 
man  to  work  with  him  and  for  him,  and  the  man  who  does  this 
with  faith  and  courage  has  no  small  influence  in  shaping  the 
future.  "  Do  not  cross  a  bridge  until  you  get  to  it "  is  an  old 
adage,  but  the  man  who  follows  that  advice  will  often  fail  to 
find  the  bridge.  It  is  wiser  to  try  to  find  out  where  the  bridges 
are,  and,  if  they  are  not  where  we  want  them,  to  make  some. 
Even  if  we  never  use  them,  it  will  do  no  harm  to  have  a  few 
extra  ones;  they  may  help  some  one  else.  In  the  attempt  to 
forecast  the  future  we  must,  of  course,  recognize  our  limitations. 
It  would  have  been  difficult  for  any  one  a  hundred  years  ago  to 
foresee  the  conditions,  that  exist  today.  We  must  not  make  up 
our  minds  as  to  what  we  think  ought  to  happen,  and  then  simply 
project  our  own  wishes  into  tomorrow.  The  only  safe  course  is 
to  adopt  the  inductive  method  of  modern  science,  and  from  the 
study  of  present  conditions  and  manifest  tendencies  determine 


THE    FUTURE    OF    MISSIONARY    WORK.  Ill 

what  our  policy  should  be.  Now,  making  all  due  allowance  for 
man's  ignorance  of  the  future  and  his  proneness  to  regard  as 
certain  what  he  wishes  to  come  to  pass,  are  there  not  a  few  out- 
standing facts  from  which  an  induction  may  fairly  be  made? 

First,  missionary  work  must  be  conducted  in  the  future  amid 
changed  conditions.  When  the  Haystack  Prayer  Meeting  was 
held,  the  greater  part  of  the  heathen  world  was  closed.  Mission- 
ary work  was  largely  influenced  by  the  fact  that  few  lands  were 
open,  and  that  even  in  them  only  the  fringes  could  be  touched. 
But  today  no  waters  are  too  remote  for  the  modern  steamer. 
Its  smoke  trails  across  every  sea  and  far  up  every  navigable 
stream.  It  has  carried  locomotives  which  are  speeding  across 
the  steppes  of  Siberia,  through  the  valleys  of  Japan,  across  the 
uplands  of  Burma,  over  the  mountains  of  Asia  Minor,  and 
through  the  very  heart  of  the  Dark  Continent.  The  traveler 
takes  his  meals  in  a  dining-car  in  Korea.  He  thunders  on  a  rail- 
way train  up  to  the  very  gates  of  the  capital  of  China,  while  in 
the  Holy  Land  the  brakeman  noisily  bawls,  "  Jerusalem  the  next 
stop."  "  Yankee  bridge  builders  have  cast  up  a  highway  in  the 
desert  where  the  chariot  of  Cambyses  was  swallowed  up  by  the 
sands.  The  steel  of  Pennsylvania  spans  the  Atbara,  makes  a 
road  to  Me  roe,"  and  crosses  the  rivers  of  Peru,  while  the  "  forty 
centuries  "  which  Napoleon  said  looked  down  from  the  pyramids, 
see  not  the  armies  of  France,  but  the  engines  of  America.  These 
things  mean  the  accessibility  of  the  non-Christian  world,  that  in 
the  era  upon  which  we  have  entered  the  missionary  of  the  cross 
can  go  anywhere.  And  if  he  can  go,  he  ought  to  go.  Oppor- 
tunity is  obligation.  With  the  wrorld  before  us,  we  must  plan 
our  work  on  a  vaster  scale. 

Politically,  too,  great  transformations  have  occurred  which 
profoundly  affect  missionary  work.  Large  areas  of  the  non- 
Christian  world  are  now  ruled  by  the  so-called  Christian  nations. 
Nearly  one  half  of  Asia,  ten  elevenths  of  Africa,  and  practically 
all  of  the  island  world  are  under  nominally  Christian  govern- 
ments, while  some  other  countries  have  come  so  far  under  Western 
influences  as  to  be  from  this  view  point  under  almost  the  same 
conditions.  The  political  idea  that  has  been  developed  by  Chris- 
tianity is  becoming  well-known  throughout  the  whole  non-Chris- 
tian world  and  is  causing  changes  which  the  missionary  statesman 
must  consider. 

Commercially,  too,  conditions  have  changed.     The  products  of 


112  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

the  Western  world  are  now  to  be  found  in  almost  every  part  of 
Asia  and  Africa.  The  old  days  of  cheap  living  have  passed  away. 
The  knowledge  of  modern  inventions  and  of  other  foods  and  articles 
has  created  new  wants.  The  Chinese  peasant  is  no  longer  content 
to  burn  bean  oil ;  he  wants  kerosene.  Scores  of  humble  Laos  homes 
are  lighted  by  American  lamps.  The  narrow  streets  of  Canton  are 
brilliant  with  German  chandeliers.  There  are  twenty-seven 
foreign  clocks  in  the  private  apartments  of  the  emperor  of  China 
and  nineteen  in  a  single  room  of  the  empress  dowager's  palace, 
while  cheaper  ones  tick  to  the  delighted  wonder  of  myriads  of 
humbler  people.  The  ambitious  Syrian  scorns  the  mud  roof  of 
his  ancestors,  and  will  only  be  satisfied  with  bright  red  tiles  im- 
ported from  France.  In  almost  every  Asiatic  city,  shops  are 
crowded  with  articles  of  foreign  manufacture.  "  Made  in  Ger- 
many "  is  a  familiar  phrase  the  world  over.  At  a  banquet  given 
to  the  foreign  ministers  by  the  emperor  and  the  empress  dowager 
of  China,  the  distinguished  guests  cut  York  ham  with  Sheffield 
knives  and  drank  French  wines  out  of  German  glasses.  The  new 
Chinese  Presbyterian  church  at  Wei-hsien  typifies  the  elements 
that  are  entering  Asia,  for  it  contains  -Chinese  brick,  Oregon  fir 
beams,  German  steel  binding-plates  and  rods,  British  cement, 
Belgian  glass,  and  Manchurian  pine  pews.  The  Siamese  woman 
busily  treads  an  American  sewing  machine,  and  her  husband 
proudly  rides  a  bicycle  made  in  Connecticut.  In  many  parts  of 
Asia,  people  who  but  a  decade  or  two  ago  were  satisfied  with  the 
crudest  appliances  of  primitive  life  are  now  learning  the  utility 
of  foreign  wire,  nails,  cutlery,  paints,  and  chemicals,  to  use  steam 
and  electrical  machinery,  and  to  like  Oregon  flour,  Chicago  beef, 
Pittsburg  pickles  and  London  jam. 

These  things  not  only  lessen  the  hardships  of  missionary  life, 
but  they  mean  that  our  constituency  has  a  knowledge  of  the  non- 
Christian  world  that  formerly  it  did  not  have.  Men  in  our 
churches  are  no  longer  so  ignorant  of  other  peoples.  Books  and 
magazine  articles  have  dissipated  the  mystery  of  the  Orient. 
Electricity  enables  the  newspapers  to  tell  every  morning  what 
occurred  yesterday  in  Seoul  and  Peking,  in  Rangoon  and  Nagasaki. 
Our  treatment  of  the  Chinese  and  the  Negro  testify  to  the  fact 
that  race  prejudice  is  still  strong.  Nevertheless,  the  white  man 
does  not  look  down  upon  the  man  of  other  races  to  the  same  extent 
that  he  did  a  century  ago.  He  recognizes  more  clearly  the  good 
qualities  that  some  of  the  non-Christian  peoples  possess.     No 


THE    FUTURE    OF    MISSIONARY    WORK.  113 

man  today  despises  the  Japanese,  —  at  any  rate,  not  in  Russia. 
And  we  hear  more  of  the  industry  of  the  Chinese  and  the  intellect 
of  the  Hindu.  The  transition  from  the  first  century  of  Protestant 
missions  to  the  second  century  is  attended  by  no  more  significant 
change  than  this,  that  the  non-Christian  peoples  are  regarded 
with  more  respect.  Our  methods  must  adapt  themselves  to  the 
fact  that  the  American  missionary  does  not  go  out  as  a  superior 
to  an  inferior,  but  as  a  man,  with  a  message  to  his  brother-man; 
knowing  that  back  of  almond  eyes  and  under  a  black  skin  is  a 
soul  for  whom  Christ  died,  and  feeling  that  each  child  of  earth  is 

"  Heir  of  the  same  inheritance, 
Child  of  the  self-same  God, 
lie  hath  but  stumbled  in  the  path 
We  have  in  weakness  trod." 

A  more  embarrassing  fact  is  that  we  not  only  know  Asia  better, 
but  that  Asia  knows  us  better.  The  printing-press  runs  day  and 
night  in  India.  Daily  papers  are  published  in  all  the  leading 
cities  of  Japan.  Siam  and  China  have  a  vernacular  press.  The 
same  steamer  that  brings  to  non-Christian  nations  Western  goods 
brings  also  Western  books  and  periodicals.  The  brutal,  immoral 
trader  arrives  on  the  same  ship  with  the  missionary.  Bibles  and 
whiskey  speed  across  the  Pacific  in  the  same  cargo.  Chinese 
gentlemen  visit  America  and  are  treated  with  shameful  indignity. 
The  Asiatic  travels  through  Europe  and  America  and  goes  back 
to  tell  his  countrymen  of  our  intemperance,  our  lust  of  gold,  our 
municipal  corruption.  "  The  Letters  of  a  Chinese  Official  "  were 
not  written  by  a  Chinese,  but  unquestionably  they  represent  the 
bitter  and  cynical  contempt  of  the  mandarin  for  the  Western  world 
that  he  has  come  to  know,  and  he  probably  will  not  see  the 
superbly  effective  reply  of  William  Jennings  Bryan. 

And  the  Asiatic  discovers  not  only  our  vices,  but  our  sectarian 
differences,  and,  worse  still,  our  irreligion.  He  knows  that  multi- 
tudes in  the  lands  from  which  the  missionaries  come  repudiate 
Christianity  and  sneer  at  the  effort  to  preach  it  to  other  peoples, 
and  that  while  the  missionaries  exhort  Asiatics  to  keep  the 
Sabbath,  Americans  at  home  do  not  keep  it  themselves.  Brah- 
mans  and  mandarins  read  infidel  books  and  magazine  articles  and 
confront  the  missionary  with  the  hostile  arguments  of  his  own 
countrymen. 

And  so  we  must  prosecute  our  work  amid  changed  conditions, 


114  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

people  at  home  no  longer  under  illusions  as  to  what  the  heathen 
are  and  the  heathen  no  longer  under  illusions  as  to  what  we  arc 
The  romance  of  missions  in  the  popular  mind  has  been  dispelled, 
and  the  missionary  is  not  now  a  hero  to  the  average  Christian. 
The  old  is  passing  away  and  a  new  created  world  springs  up7  but 
a  world  that  is  not  Christian.  We  no  longer  confront  a  cringing- 
heathenism,  but  an  aroused  and  militant  Asia  which  has  awakened 
to  a  new  consciousness  of  unity  and  power.  Asia  for  the 
Asiatic  is  now  the  slogan,  and  we  must  reckon  with  it.  The 
Japanese  victory  over  Russia  has  enormously  increased  this 
spirit,  so  that  today  not  only  Japan,  but  China  and  India  and 
Turkey  are  aflame  with  the  spirit  of  resistance  to  the  white  man's 
domination.  When  the  Asiatic  of  our  day  is  oppressed,  the  world 
with  fear  hears  him  fiercely  mutter  the  words  of  Shakespeare's 
Jew:  "  Hath  not  a  heathen  eyes?  Hath  not  a  heathen  hands, 
organs,  dimensions,  senses,  affections,  passions;  fed  with  the  same 
food,  hurt  with  the  same  weapons,  subject  to  the  same  diseases, 
healed  by  the  same  means,  warmed  and  cooled  by  the  same  winter 
and  summer,  as  a  Christian  is?  If  you  prick  us,  do  we  not  bleed? 
If  you  tickle  us,  do  we  not  laugh?  If  you  poison  us,  do  we  not 
die?  And  if  you  wrong  us,  shall  we  not  revenge?  "  Thus,  while 
some  difficulties,  such  as  physical  hardships  and  isolation,  have 
diminished,  new  obstacles  of  a  formidable  character  have  emerged. 

In  such  circumstances  what  are  some  of  the  reasonable  infer- 
ences as  to  the  future  of  missionary  work? 

First  of  all,  we  must  recognize  the  fact  that  this  is  not  a  crusade 
whose  object  is  to  be  attained  by  a  magnificent  spurt.  Error  and 
superstition  are  so  interwoven  with  the  whole  social  and  political 
fabric  of  the  non-Christian  world  that  Christianity  seems  to  it  to 
be  subversive  of  all  its  institutions.  For  a  long  time  other  faiths 
were  indifferent  to  the  gospel,  but  as  their  priests  see  more  and 
more  clearly  what  changes  Christianity  involves,  indifference  is 
giving  place  to  alarm.  The  ethnic  religions  are,  therefore,  setting 
themselves  in  battle  array.  It  would  be  foolish  to  ignore  their 
power,  foolish  to  imagine  that  we  are  seeing  the  last  of  Buddhism 
in  Japan  and  Siam,  of  Confucianism  in  China,  of  Brahmanism  in 
India,  and  of  Mohammedanism  in  Turkey.  Heathenism  will  die 
hard.     In  the  words  of  Dr.  Clarke: 

"The  missionary  enterprise  endeavors  to  plant  the  Christian  faith  as  the 
faith  and  life-principle  of  the  human  race.  Even  the  words  that  tell  of  such 
a  work  are  almost  overwhelming;    how  much  more  the  vision  of  the  task 


THE    FUTURE    OF    MISSIONARY    WORK.  115 

itself!  The  enterprise  demands  long  time;  and  if  much  is  to  be  done  there 
must  be  adequate  comprehension  of  the  nature  of  the  undertaking,  and  great 
variety  in  methods  of  work,  and  ready  adaptation  to  conditions  as  they  arise, 
and  inexhaustible  patience.  Since  we,  the  Christian  people,  are  committed 
to  such  an  enterprise  as  this,  it  is  only  the  demand  of  common-sense  that  we 
settle  down  deliberately  to  the  work,  intelligently  expecting  a  long  pull,  and 
planning  to  give  it  our  best  strength  for  an  indefinite  time  to  come.  Mission- 
aries on  the  field  should  take  this  view  of  their  work,  and  the  Church  at  home 
should  frankly  and  patiently  accept  it  with  all  that  it  implies." 

The  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil  are  in  Asia  as  well  as  in 
America,  and  fighting  harder.  It  is  no  holiday  task  to  which  we 
have  set  ourselves.  It  is  a  big  undertaking,  a  hard  one,  a  long 
one.  Against  us  are  "  the  principalities,  the  powers,  the  world 
rulers  of  this  darkness."  Need  have  we  of  patience,  of  "  the 
strength  of  his  might,  and  the  whole  armour  of  God."  We  must 
sternly  face  our  task  in  the  spirit  of  the  man  of  whom  Browning 
said :    He 

"...  never  turned  his  back  but  marched  breast  forward, 
Never  doubted  clouds  would  break, 
Never  dreamed,  though  right  were  worsted,  wrong  would  triumph, 
Held  we  fall  to  rise,  are  baffled  to  fight  better, 
Sleep  to  wake." 

For  this  stupendous  task  the  Church  at  home  must  adopt  some 
new  methods.  This  enterprise  cannot  be  maintained  simply  by 
passing  the  hat  to  those  who  happen  to  be  present  on  a  given 
Sunday  once  a  year.  We  must  insist  on  personal  subscriptions, 
proportionately  made  and  systematically  paid.  The  rich  should 
be  urged  to  give  their  share,  which  they  are  not  now  doing.  We 
must  do  less  begging  and  pleading,  as  if  missions  were  a  charity 
and  a  side  issue,  and  boldly  declare  that  it  is  the  supreme  duty  of 
the  Church  of  God.  It  is  time  for  Christendom  to  understand 
that  its  chief  work  in  the  twentieth  century  is  to  plan  this  move- 
ment on  a  scale  gigantic  in  comparison  with  anything  it  has  yet 
done,  and  to  grapple  intelligently,  generously,  and  resolutely  with 
the  majestic  work  of  making  Jesus  Christ  adequately  known  to 
the  whole  world. 

But  let  us  not  be  misled  by  the  idea  that  men  are  going  to  be 
converted  wholesale  or  by  any  patent  devices.  An  eminent  and 
sincere  worker  in  China  says  that  present  missionary  methods 
remind  him  of  the  old-time  sexton  who  went  about  a  church  and 
lighted  each  lamp  separately,  and  that  we  ought  to  adopt  the 
method  of  the  modern  sexton  who  simply  goes  behind  the  pulpit 


116  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

and  touches  a  button.  "  Convert  a  dozen  of  China's  leaders," 
he  cries,  "  and  you  will  convert  China."  I  do  not  believe  in  that 
kind  of  conversion.  Some  changes  in  method  are  indeed  required, 
but  not  those  that  involve  the  abandonment  of  Christ's  method 
of  dealing  with  men. 

But  the  changes  that  are  needed,  let  us  not  hesitate  to  make, 
no  matter  what  they  cost.  Nor  should  we  be  ashamed  to  confess 
that  we  have  made  some  mistakes,  and  that  we  are  read}'  to  read- 
just our  methods  from  time  to  time  as  God  in  his  providence  may 
direct.  Because  we  did  a  thing  last  year  is  not  a  conclusive  reason 
why  we  should  do  it  next  year.  Did  not  Emerson  say  that  con- 
sistency is  the  virtue  of  small  minds?  Let  us  do  what  we  believe 
to  be  right  before  God  today,  whether  or  not  it  is  what  we  did 
yesterday.  The  man  who  cannot  change  his  mind  when  condi- 
tions have  changed  is  not  fit  to  be  an  administrator  of  a  great 
enterprise.  He  is  worse  than  a  weak  man,  for  the  latter  is  ame- 
nable to  advice,  while  the  former  is  as  stubbornly  inaccessible  to 
reason  as  a  mule.  Grant  that  some  of  our  cherished  plans  do 
fail;  it  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  God  fails.  More  than 
once  we  have  made  this  mistake.  God  is  not  tied  up  to  our 
schemes.  They  may  be  defective,  so  that  their  miscarriage  is 
really  to  the  advantage  of  the  work.  Our  only  safety  is  to  keep 
close  to  God.  Moving  with  him,  we  shall  make  no  mistakes. 
If  the  staggering  reverse,  the  inexplicable  providence  occurs,  let 
us  not  lose  heart,  but  remember  Christ's  reply  to  Peter's  anxious 
question:   "  What  is  that  to  thee?     Follow  thou  me." 

In  the  second  place,  we  must  recognize  the  part  that  the  growing 
native  church  ought  to  have,  especially,  in  the  work  of  direct 
evangelization.  In  the  past  the  typical  missionary  has  been 
primarily  an  evangelist  to  the  heathen.  He  had  to  be,  for  his  was 
often  the  only  voice  from  whom  the  message  could  be  heard,  and 
his  work  was  necessarily  individualistic.  He  has,  therefore,  been 
paramount.  The  mission  and  the  Board  have  been  expected  to 
run  everything.  If  anything  was  wanted,  the  Board  was  asked 
to  do  it.  But  as  the  result  of  wise  and  faithful  labor  a  native 
church  has  now  been  created,  and  from  this  time  on  we  must 
concede  its  proper  share  of  responsibility  for  making  the  gospel 
known,  and  more  and  more  definitely  our  missionary  policy  should 
emphasize  the  training  of  a  native  ministry  for  this  purpose. 
Many  things  need  to  be  done  in  non-Christian  lands  that  it  is  not 
the  function  of  the  boards  to  do.     Our  business  is  to  plant  Chris- 


THE    FUTURE    OF    MISSIONARY    WORK.  11" 

tianity  and  help  to  get  it  started,  and  then  educate  it  to  take  care 
of  itself.  It  is  true  that  in  some  lands  the  native  church  is  yet 
in  its  infancy  and  must  have  aid  and  counsel.  But  more  and  more 
clearly  we  must  recognize  the  principle.  These  popular  appeals 
to  send  out  thousands  of  missionaries  in  order  that  the  heathen 
may  hear  the  gospel  ignore  the  part  that  the  native  church  has 
in  the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  Since  the  world  began,  no  people 
has  ever  been  converted  by  foreigners.  If  all  China  is  to  hear 
the  gospel,  it  must  hear  it  chiefly  from  Chinese.  I  do  not,  of 
course,  mean  that  our  missionary  work  should  cease  to  be  evan- 
gelistic or  that  reinforcements  are  not  needed.  But  I  do  mean 
that  our  policy  should  emphasize  more  largely  the  educational 
work  which  will  produce  a  native  ministry,  and  emphasize  more 
largely  too  the  duty  of  each  native  Christian  to  make  Christ 
known  to  his  countrymen,  without  expectation  of  pay  from  the 
foreigner. 

Third,  our  work  in  the  future  should  be  less  sectarian  and  more 
broadly  Christian.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  our  denomina- 
tions are  not  Christian  or  that  their  work  has  been  narrowly 
sectarian.  In  this  respect  the  missionaries  are  already  in  advance 
of  many  in  the  home  churches.  But  more  and  more  we  should 
unite  in  presenting  to  the  heathen  world,  not  so  much  the  tenets 
on  which  we  differ,  as  the  truths  on  which  we  agree.  I  admire  the 
ingenuity  of  those  who  can  find  good  reasons  for  preaching  denomi- 
national peculiarities  to  the  heathen,  but  when  I  hear  the  labored 
arguments  for  such  a  policy,  I  sympathize  with  the  child  who, 
after  a  sermon  in  which  the  minister  had  eloquently  urged  that 
the  unity  for  which  the  Lord  prayed  was  consistent  with  sectari- 
anism, said:  "  Mamma,  if  Christ  didn't  mean  what  he  said,  why 
didn't  he  say  what  he  meant?  "  In  India  I  met  a  swarthy  native 
who  knew  just  enough  English  to  be  able  to  tell  me  that  he  was  a 
Scotch  Presbyterian.  Thank  God,  there  is  now  a  Union  Presby- 
terian church  in  India,  and  also  in  Japan  and  Mexico  and  Korea, 
while  a  majestic  one  is  forming  in  China.  Why  should  not  Presby- 
terians and  other  evangelical  churches  unite  on  the  foreign  field? 
Why  force  our  differences  upon  the  Christians  of  Asia?  We  would 
not  be  premature  or  impracticable.  The  deeply  rooted  differences 
of  centuries  are  not  to  be  eradicated  in  a  day.  We  must  feel  our 
way  along  with  caution  and  wisdom.  The  work  abroad  is  in 
many  respects  a  projection  of  the  work  at  home,  and  it  will  be 
more  or  less  hampered  by  our  American  divisions.     But  in  the 


118  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

presence  of  a  vast  heathen  population,  let  us  at  least  remember 
that  our  points  of  disagreement  are  less  vital  than  our  points  of 
agreement.  It  is  no  part  of  our  duty  to  perpetuate  on  the  foreign 
field  the  sectarian  divisions  of  Europe  and  America.  One  funda- 
mental principle  of  our  future  missionary  policy  should  be  that 
expressed  in  the  ringing  proclamation  of  the  Conference  of  Protes- 
tant Missions  in  Japan:  "  That  all  those  who  are  one  with  Christ 
by  faith  are  one  body,  and  that  all  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus  and 
his  Church  in  sincerity  and  truth  should  pray  and  labor  for  the 
full  realization  of  such  a  corporate  oneness  as  the  Master  himself 
prayed  for  in  the  night  in  which  he  was  betrayed." 

It  is  a  corollary  of  what  has  been  said  that  we  should  avoid  as 
far  as  possible  identifying  Christianity  with  questions  on  which 
Christians  disagree.  Such  teaching  is  suicidal,  for  sooner  or  later 
the  Asiatic  finds  out  that  a  large  number  of  Christians,  including 
some  missionaries,  believe  differently,  and  then  there  is  danger  that 
either  his  faith  or  his  confidence  in  the  missionary  will  be  weak- 
ened. We  must,  indeed,  frankly  admit  that  there  are  questions 
on  which  we  differ.  We  may  even  tell  the  native  Christian  what 
those  things  are  and  why  we  believe  that  we  are  right.  But  let 
us  be  manly  enough  and  Christian  enough  to  tell  him  at  the  same 
time,  that  there  are  questions  on  which  equally  devout  Christians 
themselves  are  not  agreed,  so  that  when  he  learns  these  differences 
for  himself  his  faith  will  not  be  disturbed. 

And  in  the  matter  of  the  creed  and  government  of  the  native 
church,  we  must  more  clearly  recognize  the  right  of  each  autono- 
mous body  of  Christians  to  determine  certain  things  for  itself. 
Here  is  one  of  the  anxious  problems  of  the  future.  Will  the 
rising  church  of  Japan,  of  China,  be  a  soundly  evangelical  church? 
God  grant  that  it  may  be.  And  yet  in  the  course  of  nearly  two 
thousand  years,  Christianity  has  undoubtedly  taken  on  some  of 
the  characteristics  of  the  white  races,  and  missionaries,  inheriting 
these  characteristics,  have  more  or  less  unconsciously  identified 
them  with  the  essentials.  Perhaps  this  is  one  reason  that  Chris- 
tianity is  so  often  called  by  the  Chinese  "  the  foreigner's  reli- 
gion," a  saying  that  indicates  an  entire  misconception  of  its  real 
character.  How  far  is  it  proper  for  us  to  impose  upon  them  our 
Western  terminology  and  ecclesiastical  forms?  How  far  are  we 
to  be  the  judge  of  what  it  is  necessary  for  other  churches  to 
accept?  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize  to  what  an  extent  our  modes 
of  theological  thought  and  our  forms  of  church  polity  have  been 


THE    FUTURE    OF    MISSIONARY    WORK.  119 

influenced  by  our  Western  environment  and  the  polemical  strug- 
gles through  which  we  have  passed.  The  Oriental,  not  having 
passed  through  those  particular  controversies,  knowing  little  and 
caring  less  about  them,  and  having  other  controversies  of  his  own, 
may  not  find  our  forms  and  methods  exactly  suited  to  his  needs. 
Let  us  give  to  him  the  same  freedom  that  we  demand  for  our- 
selves, and  refrain  from  imposing  on  other  peoples  those  features 
of  Christianity  that  are  purely  racial.  We  say  that  our  aim  is  the 
establishment  of  a  self-governing,  self-supporting,  and  self-propa- 
gating church.  Let  us  not  shrink  from  the  realization  of  our 
avowed  aim.  Let  the  Asiatics  accept  Christ  for  themselves  and 
develop  for  themselves  the  methods  and  institutions  that  result 
from  his  teaching.  Let  us  have  faith  in  our  brethren  and  faith  in 
God.  When  Christ  said  that  he  would-be  with  his  disciples  alway, 
he  meant  his  disciples  in  Asia  and  Africa  as  well  as  in  Europe  and 
America.  The  operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  not  confined  to 
the  white  man.  We  should  plant  in  non-Christian  lands  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  then 
give  the  native  church  reasonable  freedom  to  make  some  adapta- 
tions for  itself.  If  in  the  exercise  of  that  freedom  it  does  some 
things  that  we  deprecate,  let  us  not  be  frightened  and  think  that 
our  work  has  been  in  vain.  The  Bible  was  written  by  Asiatics 
and  in  an  Asiatic  language.  Christ  himself  was  an  Asiatic.  We 
of  the  West  have,  perhaps,  only  imperfectly  understood  that 
Asiatic  Bible  and  Asiatic  Christ,  and  it  may  be  that  by  the  guid- 
ance of  God's  Spirit  upon  the  rising  churches  of  Asia,  a  new  and 
broader  and  more  perfect  interpretation  of  the  gospel  of  Christ 
may  be  made  known  to  the  world. 

"  Our  little  systems  have  their  day; 

They  have  their  day  and  cease  to  be: 
They  are  but  broken  lights  of  thee, 
And  thou,  O  Lord,  art  more  than  they." 

But  no  changes  that  have  been  made  and  none  that  will  be 
made  impair  in  the  slightest  degree  the  imperative  character  of 
the  missionary  obligation.  Rather  do  they  strengthen  it.  There 
may,  indeed,  be  a  change  of  emphasis  in  the  motives  that  prompt 
men  to  engage  in  missionary  work.  Some  of  the  motives  that 
stirred  our  fathers  are  not  as  strongly  operative  today.  But 
other  motives  have  emerged  that  were  then  but  dimly  under- 
stood.    But  the  great  central  facts  still  stand,  that  the  knowl- 


120  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

edge  of  Jesus  Christ  means  the  temporal  and  eternal  salvation 
of  men;  that  it  is  the  duty  of  those  who  have  that  knowledge  to 
make  it  known  to  those  that  do  not  have  it;  that  no  matter  how 
distant  the  ignorant  may  be,  no  matter  how  widely  they  may 
differ  from  us,  no  matter  whether  they  are  conscious  of  their  need, 
or  how  much  trouble  and  expense  we  may  incur  in  reaching  them, 
we  must  get  to  them,  if  we  are  loyal  to  our  own  consciences  and 
to  our  crucified  and  risen  Lord.  Above  all  the  tumult  of  theolog- 
ical strife,  the  one  object  that  is  towering  more  and  more  clearly 
and  commandingly  before  men  is  the  figure  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
divine  and  eternal  Son  of  the  ever-living  God.  In  him  is  the  true 
unity  of  the  race,  and  around  him  cluster  its  noblest  activities. 
However  much  Christians  may  differ  as  to  other  things,  they  will 
be  more  and  more  agreed  as  to  the  imperative  duty  and  the  inspir- 
ing privilege  of  preaching  to  the  world  that  gospel  which,  unaged 
by  time  and  unweakened  by  attack,  stands  before  us  in  fadeless 
beauty  and  imperishable  vitality  —  the  only  hope  for  a  needy 
race. 

We  rejoice  in  the  advance  of  civilization,  but  no  mere  civili- 
zation can  ever  save  a  world.  There  is  no  moral  quality  in  a 
steamboat  or  a  ballot  box.  A  merely  material  civilization  is 
always  and  everywhere  a  curse  rather  than  a  blessing.  From 
the  Garden  of  Eden  down,  the  fall  of  man  has  resulted  from  what 
George  Adam  Smith  calls  "  the  increase  of  knowledge  and  of 
power  unaccompanied  by  reverence.  .  .  .  No  evolution  is  stable 
which  neglects  the  moral  factor  or  seeks  to  shake  itself  free  from 
the  eternal  duties  of  obedience  and  of  faith.  .  .  .  The  song  of 
Lamech  echoes  from  a  remote  antiquity  the  savage  truth  that 
the  first  results  of  civilization  are  to  equip  hatred  and  render 
revenge  more  deadly  ...  a  savage  exultation  in  the  fresh  power 
of  vengeance  which  all  the  novel  instruments  have  placed  in  their 
inventor's  hands." 

Legislation  cannot  add  the  desired  quality.  Laws  deal  only 
with  external  acts  and  relations;  they  do  not  make  bad  men  good. 
In  the  language  of  Herbert  Spencer,  "  There  is  no  political  alchemy 
by  which  you  can  get  golden  conduct  out  of  leaden  motives." 
As  for  secular  education,  Macaulay  truly  says  that  nine  tenths  of 
the  evils  that  afflict  the  human  race  come  from  a  union  of  high 
intelligence  and  low  desires.  Greek  and  Roman  culture  were  at 
their  highest  point  of  development  when  the  ancient  world  was 
literally  rotten  with  vice.     The  student  of  the  Renaissance  knows 


THE    FUTURE   OF   MISSIONARY    WORK.  121 

that  Italy  was  never  worse  morally  than  in  the  period  famous  for 
its  revival  of  classic  learning'.  "  Under  the  thin  mask  of  humane 
refinement,"  says  the  historian  Symonds,  "leered  the  untamed 
savage;  and  an  age  thai  boasted  not  unreasonably  of  its  mental 
progress  was,  ;it  the  same  time,  notorious  for  the  vices  that  dis- 
grace mankind." 

Some  allege  that  civilization  should  precede  Christianity,  but 
Dr.  James  Stewart  says:  " Trade  and  commerce  have  been  on 
the  west  coast  of  Africa  for  more  than  three  centuries.  What 
have  they  made  of  that  region?  Some  of  its  tribes  are  more 
hopeless,  more  sunken  morally  and  socially,  and  rapidly  becoming 
more  commercially  valueless,  than  any  tribes  that  may  be  found 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  continent.  Mere  commercial  influ- 
ence, by  its  example  or  its  teaching  during  all  that  time,  has  had 
little  effect  on  the  cruelty  and  reckless  shedding  of  blood  and  the 
human  sacrifices  of  the  besotted  paganism  which  still  exists  near 
that  coast."  It  is  the  gospel  that  men  need,  the  gospel  that  can 
enter  the  heart  of  unregenerate  man,  throttle  its  passions,  and 
make  him  a  new  creature. 

There  are  other  questions  of  which  I  would  like  to  speak.  As 
we  stand  on  this  historic  spot, 

"  I  feel  my  view  of  time  grow  wondrous  wide; 
I  see  the  world  of  old,  and  overawed, 
I  note  the  magic  of  the  swelling  tide, 

Instinct  with  power,  transcending  human  laud." 

But,  without  attempting  further  details,  may  we  not,  as  we  face 
the  future,  see  the  main  outlines  of  a  glorious  vision;  not  the 
baseless  dream  of  the  enthusiast,  but  the  reasonable  expectation 
of  those  who  believe  that  the  divine  hand  guides  the  destinies 
of  men,  and  that  underneath  all  the  commotions  of  earth,  the 
currents  of  time  are  sweeping  towTard  that 

"  One  far-off  divine  event, 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

And  this  vision  is  that  the  movement  for  the  evangelization  of  the 
world  will  continue  to  grow  and  assume  more  and  more  majestic 
proportions  until  all  men  shall  know  the  Lord. 

Is  it  not  true,  missionaries  and  secretaries,  that  reports  justify 
this  vision?  Is  not  every  mail  burdened  with  them?  As  I  read 
the  letters  that  pour  into  my  office,  I  sometimes  feel,  like  Ahimaaz 
of  old,  that  I  must  now  run  and  bear  tidings  of  victory.     The 


122  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

number  of  converts  is  increasing  by  leaps  and  bounds.  But  apart 
from  this,  there  are  unmistakable  signs  that  a  great  movement 
has  begun.  The  very  fact  that  heathen  systems  are  passing  from 
indifference  to  hostility,  and  feel  obliged  to  conceal  their  coarser 
practices  and  to  emphasize  their  better  features,  is  a  tribute  to 
the  growing  power  of  Christianity.  Society  in  Asia  is  becoming- 
more  ashamed  of  open  vice.  Standards  of  conduct  are  growing 
purer.  The  character  of  Christ  is  universally  conceded  to  be  the 
loftiest  in  history.  What  Benjamin  Kidd  calls  the  altruistic 
ideas  of  Christianity  have  been  liberated  in  heathen  nations  and 
they  are  slowly  but  surely  transforming  them.  As  you  travel 
through  those  vast  continents,  you  become  conscious  of  the  work- 
ing of  mighty  forces  that  are  creating  conditions  more  favorable 
to  the  rapid  triumph  of  the  gospel.  You  are  impressed  not  so 
much  by  the  actual  number  of  those  already  converted,  as  by  the 
strength  of  the  current  that  is  sweeping  majestically  toward  the 
goals  of  God.  You  feel  with  Gibson  that  the  situation  is  satis- 
factory, not  that  we  are  contented  with  ourselves  or  with  our 
work,  but  that  "  a  crucial  experiment  has  been  made.  We  know 
what  can  be  done  and  can  predict  results."  We  see  that  we  are 
in  the  trend  of  the  divine  purpose  and  that  "  His  day  is  marching 
on."  The  skeptic  may  sneer  and  the  critic  object,  but  wre  reply 
in  the  ringing  words  of  Gladstone  on  the  Reform  Bill:  "  Time  is 
on  our  side.  The  great  social  forces  which  move  onward  in  their 
might  and  majesty,  and  which  the  tumults  of  these  strifes  do  not 
for  a  moment  impede  or  disturb,  those  forces  are  marshaled  in 
our  support.  And  the  banner  which  we  now  carry  in  the  fight, 
though  perhaps  at  some  moment  of  the  struggle  it  may  droop  over 
our  sinking  hearts,  yet  will  float  again  in  the  eye  of  heaven  and  will 
be  borne,  perhaps  not  to  an  easy,  but  to  a  certain  and  to  a  not 
distant  victory."  Is  there  not  divine  authority  for  this  vision? 
Did  not  Paul  declare  that  it  is  the  purpose  of  God  to  sum  up  all 
things  in  Christ  and  that  every  knee  shall  bow  and  every  tongue 
confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord? 

In  a  famous  art  gallery  there  is  a  painting  called  "  Anno 
Domini."  It  represents  an  Egyptian  temple,  from  whose  spacious 
courts  a  brilliant  procession  of  soldiers,  statesmen,  philosophers, 
artists,  musicians,  and  priests  is  advancing  in  triumphal  march, 
bearing  a  huge  idol,  the  challenge  and  the  boast  of  heathenism. 
Across  the  pathway  of  the  procession  is  an  ass,  whose  bridle  is  held 
by  a  reverent  looking  man  and  upon  whose  back  is  a  fair  young 


THE    FUTURE    OF    MISSIONARY    WORK.  123 

mother  with  her  infant  child.  It  is  Jesus,  just  entering  Egypt  in 
flight  from  the  wrath  of  Herod,  and  there  crossing  the  path  of 
aggressive  heathenism.  Then  the  clock  strikes  and  the  era  of  our 
Lord  begins.  It  is  a  noble  parable.  Its  fulfillment  has  been  long 
delayed  till  the  Child  has  become  a  Man,  crucified,  risen,  crowned. 
But  now,  in  full  majesty  and  power,  He  stands  across  the  pathway 
of  advancing  heathenism.  There  may  be  confusion  and  tumult 
for  a  time.  The  heathen  may  rage  "  and  the  rulers  take  counsel 
together  against  the  Lord."  But  the  idol  shall  be  broken  "  with 
a  rod  of  iron,"  and  the  King  upon  his  holy  hill  shall  have  "  the 
heathen  for  '  his  '  inheritance  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth  for  '  his  '  possession." 

And,  therefore,  as  we  stand  today  under  the  open  sky  on  this 
spot  sacred  to  the  memories  of  the  mighty  dead,  we  reverently 
say,  in  the  immortal  words  of  Lincoln  at  Gettysburg:  "  We 
should  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us: 
that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to  that 
cause  for  which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion;  that 
we  here  highlv  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain." 


124  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 


BRIEF  ADDRESSES  BY  NATIVE  CHRISTIANS  FROM  THE 
FOREIGN  MISSION  FIELDS. 

Greetings  from  Arnold  Sidobe  Hiwale,  of  India. 

To  be  present  at  this  centennial  meeting  of  the  American  Board 
I  esteem  one  of  the  greatest  privileges  of  my  life.  Not  only  to 
the  men  who  began  this  grand  movement  do  I  feel  grateful,  but 
also  the  place  from  which  it  started  is  very  dear  to  my  heart. 
Indeed,  this  movement  made  me  what  I  am  today.  You  who 
are  the  sons  and  daughters  of  a  free  land,  and  who  inherit  the 
riches  of  Christ,  can  hardly  understand  the  significance  of  a 
gathering  like  this,  but  we  who  owe  our  all  to  this  Board, 
honor  and  esteem  it  beyond  our  power  of  expression,  and  that 
is  why  I  say  that  what  Jerusalem  was  to  the  Crusaders,  what 
Benares  is  to  the  Hindus,  and  what  Mecca  is  to  the  Moham- 
medans, the  Haystack  is  to  the  converts  of  this  Board  all  over 
the  world. 

It  was  to  India  that  this  Board  sent  two  of  its  first  missionaries. 
After  landing  there  they  found  opposition  and  many  difficulties, 
but,  brave  and  determined,  they  never  faltered  in  their  God-given 
duty.  They  faced  all  difficulties  and  trial  and,  in  the  time  of 
opposition,  they  planned  out  their  intended  work. 

One  of  them  lived  in  the  city,  while  the  other  went  traveling 
from  town  to  town  and  from  village  to  village,  under  that  hot 
Indian  sun,  thus  visiting  crowds  of  the  natives  who  never  had 
heard  what  the  gospel  was.  He  went  to  the  holy  place  we  call 
Nasik  Shkatra,  which  is  on  the  bank  of  the  holy  river,  the  Krishna, 
and  while  working  among  the  pilgrims  who  had  gathered  there 
from  all  parts  of  India  to  get  rid  of  their  sins,  he  fell  asleep  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  was  buried  there,  far  away  from  his  country 
and  from  his  dear  friends  and  relatives. 

Brethren!  when  the  very  foundation  of  our  Indian  churches  is 
cemented  by  the  blood  of  your  own  brave  and  consecrated  country- 
men, do  believe  the  hour  of  final  victory  is  certain.  Soul  after 
soul  is  being  added  to  the  list  of  his  children. 

And  as  you  see  me  here  speaking  about  India,  and  that,  too,  in 
your  language,  let  me  beg  you  to  remember  that  I  am  only  one  of 
the  multitude  of  converts  in  India,  the  fruits  of  the  work  of  your 


ADDRESSES    BY    NATIVE   CHRISTIANS.  1 25 

missionaries  whom  you  sent  to  convert  us  and  make  us  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  same  God  whom  you  worship  and  honor. 

When  I  am  asked  to  speak  a  word  concerning  India,  what  can 
I  say  but  a  word  of  thanks  for  the  great  work  you  have  done  there? 
You  can  hardly  imagine  how  grateful  we  who  are  led  to  Christ  in 
our  heathen  countries  are  to  this  Board  for  its  many  kindnesses, 
and  more  than  that,  for  sending  us  the  gospel  that  we  might 
inherit  eternal  salvation  through  our  common  Lord  and  Redeemer. 
Because  of  your  success  in  obtaining  freedom  and  liberty,  the 
French  people  congratulated  you  by  presenting  you  the  Statue  of 
Liberty,  which  stands  today  in  New  York  Harbor.  Christian 
India,  and  especially  Congregational  Christian  India,  has  no  gold 
and  silver  by  which  to  show  you  her  gratitude,  but  she  is  building 
up  a  strong  tower  of  mighty  prayers,  unseen,  yet  not  unheard, 
before  the  throne  of  the  Almighty  for  your  prosperity. 
.  Your  reports  tell  of  the  many  and  great  works  already  begun 
in  India,  but  what  are  these  when  the  whole  land  is  considered? 
India  has  three  hundred  million  people;  that  is  to  say,  one  fifth  of 
the  world's  population.  The  great  work  already  done  is  but  a 
beginning.  Thousands  of  people  are  perishing  without  the  gospel. 
If  you  could  quadruple  your  Christian  army  in  the  immediate 
future,  the  people  of  India  would  soon  turn  to  Christianity,  not 
by  hundreds  or  thousands,  but  by  hundreds  of  thousands.  I 
fear  that  five  or  ten  years  hence  will  be  too  late. 

Is  it  not  right  at  such  a  critical  time  as  this  for  us  to  stretch  out 
our  feeble  hands  for  the  help  from  you  who  are  strong  and  mighty 
in  Christendom,  and  ask  you  to  increase  your  noble  work?  At 
present,  India  is  passing  through  a  very  strange  experience.  In 
spite  of  the  work  of  all  the  Christian  societies,  India  practically 
is  a  heathen  country,  and  yet  she  is  trying  to  learn  all  the  Western 
ways  of  life.  Her  young  men  are  going  to  the  different  parts  of 
Europe  and  America  to  get  the  benefit  of  their  commercial  and 
industrial  enterprises.  This  they  are  doing,  but  quite  apart  from 
the  Christian  religion.  If  the  East  is  allowed  to  become  civilized 
without  Christianity,  the  Church  of  God  will  face  some  of  the 
difficulties  which  it  did  in  the  first  few  centuries.  The  East  is 
waking  up.  It  is  on  fire  on  account  of  the  Russo-Japanese  War. 
Do  not  encourage  India,  China,  and  Japan,  which  make  half  of 
the  world  with  their  tremendous  populations,  to  fight  for  their 
rights  while  they  remain  in  their  heathenism.  Let  them  not  think 
that  prosperity  and  fame  can  be  obtained  without  learning  and 


126  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

practicing  the  eternal  truth  which  has  been  taught  by  our  Saviour. 
"  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

While  I  am  thus  pleading  for  India,  and  reminding  you  of  the  great 
need  of  evangelization  in  that  land  at  this  very  moment,  I  ask  you 
to  remember  also  that  our  churches,  small  and  poor  as  they  are, 
are  nevertheless  trying  to  do  their  duty  for  their  own  land  and 
countrymen.  We  try  to  give  heed  to  your  teaching  about  giving. 
The  salvation  of  India  depends  on  her  own  sons  and  daughters. 
We  need  your  help  to  become  efficient  in  saving  our  land. 

In  the  providence  of  our  loving  Father,  we  fortunately  have 
a  just  and  generous  government.  During  recent  years,  famines 
and  plagues  have  made  their  home  in  India.  If  it  were  not  for 
the  kind  government  and  your  generous  help,  rendered  to  us  in  the 
years  of. calamity,  thousands  of  our  people  would  have  perished 
without  food  and  shelter.  So,  Christian  friends  and  benefactors, 
in  the  midst  of  a  thousand  and  one  difficulties,  we  have  shown 
courage  and  the  spirit  of  endurance. 

We  beg  you  to  listen  to  the  pleas  that  come  to  you.  Increase 
the  reenf  or  cements.  Think  of  our  three  hundred  million  people. 
Study  the  situation  of  our  millions  upon  millions  of  children. 
Rejoice  with  the  women  of  India,  who  have  been  buried  for  the 
past  three  thousand  years  in  slavery  and  degradation,  and  who 
now  find  relief  and  shelter  at  your  door. 

Christian  friends  and  members  of  the  American  Board,  I  again 
express  my  thanks  to  you  for  lifting  us  out  of  the  dense  darkness 
of  heathenism  into  the  clear  light  of  Christianity;  for  showing  us 
the  true  and  loving  Father  through  his  son,  Jesus  Christ;  for 
making  into  men  and  women  us  who  were  buried  for  centuries 
together  in  superstition,  ignorance,  and  idolatry;  for  saving  our 
thousands  of  orphan  children  from  the  very  jaws  of  death,  and 
giving-  them  their  daily  bread;  for  clothing  our  widows  and  old 
people;  yea,  for  relieving  the  sorrows  and  pains,  both  physical 
and  spiritual,  of  thousands;  for  giving  food  and  shelter  to  them 
that  were  driven  from  their  houses  for  the  sake  of  the  gospel; 
for  building  schoolhouses  and  dormitories  for  mental  and  spirit- 
ual instruction;  for  encouraging  our  young  men  and  women  to 
form  Christian  communities  and  also  for  uplifting  them  so  that 
they  may  be  able  to  fill  the  responsible  places  of  leadership. 
But  more  than  all  I  thank  you  for  creating  in  the  depths  of  our 
Hindu  hearts  a  conscience,  and  for  building  the  Church  of  God 
in  our  land  of  Hindustan. 


ADDRESSES    BY    NATIVE    CHRISTIANS.  127 

May  the  Heavenly  Father  pour  bis  richest  blessing  upon  you 
and  upon  your  children,  and  may  he  also  prosper  you  and  your 
free  country  in  hastening  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Greeting  prom  Henry  M.  Hoisington  Kulasinghe,  of  Ceylon. 

"  There  is  a  time  for  everything,"  says  the  preacher;  "  a  time 
to  sow  and  a  time  to  reap;  a  time  to  weep,  and  a  time  to  rejoice; 
a  time  to  speak,  and  a  time  to  be  silent."  In  the  multitude  of 
the  thoughts  that  rise  within  me  as  I  stand  before  you,  as  the 
representative  of  the  work  of  the  Board  in  Ceylon,  I  would  rather 
remain  silent,  and  let  my  presence  alone  convey  to  you  the 
message  that   burns   within   my   heart   for  expression. 

Bishop  Heber  depicts  Ceylon  in  words  familiar  to  most  of  you: 

"  ^Yhat  though  the  spicy  breezes 

Blow  soft  o'er  Ceylon's  isle, 
Though  every  prospect  pleases 

And  only  man  is  vile; 
In  vain  with  lavish  kindness 

The  gifts  of  God  are  strewn, 
The  heathen  in  his  blindness 

Bows  down  to  wood  and  stone," 

—  a  curious  blend  of  beauty  and  pathos.  But  it  gives  you  only 
a  partial  aspect  of  that  island  and  its  people,  and  it  was  written 
several  years  ago.  Had  Bishop  Heber  been  to  Jaffna,  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  island,  and  seen  what  a  contrast  it  presented 
in  many  respects  to  the  scene  in  central  Ceylon,  which  inspired 
his  muse,  he  might  have  given  us  a  very  different  picture.  But 
times  have  changed,  and  even  in  slow-moving  Orient,  "  Progress 
is  the  law  of  life." 

I  come  to  you  as  the  representative  of  young  and  growing 
Ceylon  as  we  find  it  today,  after  more  than  a  century  of  British 
occupation  and  an  equally  long  period  of  Christian  missionary 
enterprise.  I  have  three  generations  of  Christian  blood  in  me, 
and  it  is,  by  no  means,  unique.  What  you  see  in  me,  you  find 
reproduced  in  many  other  lives  in  Jaffna.  Ninety  years  ago 
Jaffna  was  very  little  known  to  the  West,  and  its  people  knew 
nothing  of  Christ  and  his  message  of  love  to  the  world.  They 
were  hardly  aware  at  all  of  the  existence  of  a  world  outside  their 
own  narrow  bounds.  If  you  visit  Jaffna  today  you  will  not 
believe  your  own  eyes.     Such  a  complete  transformation  in  every 


128  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

respect  from  the  island  to  which  the  pioneer  missionaries  were 
sent! 

You  ask  me  what  has  done  this?  Is  it  due  to  the  British 
occupation?  I  say,  Only  in  part.  Has  the  character  of  the  people 
anything  to  do  with  it?  I  say,  Very  little.  But  the  reason  is 
ultimately  to  be  found  in  the  moral  supremacy  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  its  power  to  save  and  to  transform  the  lives  of 
men  and  women. 

My  countrymen  understand  the  power  of  that  gospel,  and  greatly 
appreciate  the  spirit  of  Christian  America  in  sending  missionaries 
to  bear  that  gospel  to  our  shores.  Their  coming  and  living 
amongst  us;  the  noble  testimony  of  their  lives,  which  was  perme- 
ated with  that  message;  their  spirit  of  sacrifice  and  heroism  in 
leaving  home  and  other  kindred  ties  in  obedience  to  that  call; 
their  constant  devotion  and  loyalty  to  the  cause  of  loving  service 
and  helpfulness  to  human  need  till  death  called  them  to  a  higher 
and  nobler  service,  —  these  have  been  to  us  the  very  essence  of 
that  gospel  message,  the  evidence  of  a  new  life  and  the  dawn  of 
a  new  era  of  progress. 

I  have  been  sent  to  voice  the  gratitude  of  my  countrymen  for 
the  gospel  of  peace  which  America  sent  to  us  through  a  noble 
band  of  consecrated  men  and  women,  whose  memory  is  held  in 
much  love  and  esteem  by  the  people  of  Jaffna  whom  they  came 
to  redeem  for  Christ.  I  recall  with  reverent  memory  the  names 
of  these  honored  men  of  Cod,  Hoisington,  Spaulding,  Meigs, 
Richards,  Poor,  Green,  Hastings,  Smith,  and  Howland,  and  some 
saintly  women  amongst  them,  such  as  the  Misses  Agnew  and 
Leitch,  who  gave  their  lives  willingly  for  Jaffna  and  lived  to  see 
that  their  sacrifice  was  not  paid  in  vain. 

Message  of  Akaiko  Akana,  of  Hawaii. 

Akaiko  Akana  presented  himself  as  one  of  the  fruits  of  the 
work  of  the  United  States  missionaries  in  Hawaii.  He  said  that 
the  seed  had  been  sown  and  there  had  been  a  great  change  as  the 
result  of  the  missionary  work.  He  said  that  he  had  given  up  a 
more  promising  future  so  far  as  fame  and  finances  are  concerned 
to  follow  the  missionary  work,  and  he  made  an  urgent  appeal  to 
the  people  in  the  United  States  interested  in  missions  not  to  forget 
Hawaii.  He  wanted  Christianity  more  general  in  the  islands, 
saying  there  is  plenty  of  room  for  righteousness.     He  deplored 


ADDRESSES    BY    NATIVE    CHRISTIANS.  129 

the  present  custom  of  breaking  the  Sabbath  by  baseball  and  golf 
in  his  land,  and  said  that  he  wanted  it  stopped  and  was  working 
to  that  end,  and  he  asked  the  members  of  the  American  Board  and 
all  others  to  make  it  a  subject  of  prayer. 

Greeting  from  Fei  Chi  Hao,  of  China,  a  Student  at  Yale 

University. 

Friends  of  the  American  Board:  It  is  a  great  pleasure  and  honor 
to  stand  before  you  this  afternoon  on  this  great  occasion  as  one 
of  the  many  fruits  of  j^our  missionary  work  in  China.  I  can  do 
no  better  in  the  few  minutes  allotted  me  than  to  tell  you  what 
the  missionaries  whom  you  commissioned  have  done  for  me  and 
for  my  family,  though  there  is  nothing  in  ourselves  to  boast  of, 
but  I  must  bear  testimony  to  the  transforming  power  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

Through  my  father's  severe  illness,  some  twenty-five  years  ago, 
he  was  converted  to  the  Christian  religion  under  the  influence  of 
the  missionaries  of  the  Congregational  denomination,  and  my 
mother  soon  followed  in  his  steps  and  became  a  faithful  follower 
of  Jesus  Christ.  They  gave  up  idol  worship,  card  playing,  and 
many  other  worldly  pleasures.  They  put  my  brother,  my  two 
sisters,  and  myself  into  Christian  schools.  My  mother  was  not 
educated,  and  never  had  a  chance  to  go  to  school;  but  at  the  age 
of  forty-two,  soon  after  her  conversion,  the  missionaries  began  to 
teach  her  to  read,  so  that  at  her  death  there  was  not  a  single 
Chinese  character  in  the  New  Testament  that  she  did  not  know. 
Day  after  day  for  several  years  she  used  to  sit  in  the '  women's 
dispensary  in  my  native  city  of  T'ung  Chou  and  tell  the  simple 
but  beautiful  story  of  Jesus  to  hundreds  of  women,  until  finally, 
in  1900,  she  gladly  gave  up  her  earthly  life  for  the  Master  whom 
she  had  learned  to  love.  Both  of  my  parents  are  now  wearing 
the  martyr's  crown  in  the  "  Home  above."  This  is  a  sample  of 
what  I  call  the  result  of  your  work. 

I  am  always  glad  and  thankful  that  I  was  born  in  a  Christian 
home,  a  rare  privilege  that  very  few  Chinese  have,  and  that  I 
was  educated  in  your  missionary  schools  for  fifteen  years.  I 
knew  the  missionaries  in  T'ung  Chou  almost  as  early  as  I  knew 
my  parents,  and  I  am  proud  to  be  called,  not  "  friend,"  but  the 
"  son  "  of  the  missionaries  of  the  American  Board.  It  is  my  high 
ambition  now  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  your  missionaries  and 


130  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

carry  back  the  blessed  message  to  my  people  in  the  near  future. 
This  also  is  what  I  call  a  result  of  your  work. 

May  I  tell  you  some  other  sad  but  glorious  results  of  your  work 
during  the  Boxer  uprising  in  1900?  It  is  a  pitiful  thing  that  a 
large  number  of  your  missionaries  were  massacred  by  the  Boxers; 
but  do  you  know,  friends,  that  a  much  larger  number  of  the  native 
converts  perished  together  with  them?  For  instance,  in  my 
native  city  of  T'ung  Chou  more  than  half  of  the  four  hundred 
native  Christians  were  killed,  more  than  two  thirds  in  the  city  of 
Tai  Ku,  scores  in  Pao  Ting  Fu,  Pekin,  Kalgan,  and  many  other 
places.  Many  of  these  native  martyrs  had  chances  to  escape 
and  thus  to  save  their  lives,  but  the  power  of  Christianity  and 
the  love  of  your  missionaries  got  hold  of  their  hearts.  They 
preferred  to  die  with  their  missionary  friends  than  to  escape  and 
live  alone.     This  I  call  another  result  of  your  work. 

I  am  not  ashamed  that  I  am  a  Chinese.  I  sincerely  believe  the 
beautiful  saying  in  our  church,  "  The  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the 
seed  of  the  church."  The  blood  of  the  many  thousand  native 
converts  became  the  seed  of  the  native  church  and  made  my 
country  much  richer  than  she  was  before.  This  also  is  the  result 
of  missionary  work.  Is  it  worth  while,  then,  to  continue  your 
work  there  in  the  dark  kingdom? 

China  is  in  a  most  critical  condition  just  now.  She  has  aroused 
from  her  long  slumber.  She  wants  to  change  and  reform.  She 
wishes  to  adapt  herself  to  Western  civilization.  But,  alas!  She 
only  wants  the  fruits  of  Christianity,  but  not  the  root.  We  need 
colleges  and  universities.  We  need  warships  and  good  soldiers. 
We  need  to  build  railroads  and  open  up  mines.  But  the  thing  that 
we  need  most,  just  now,  is  Christianity.  The  Christian  religion  is 
the  only  hope  and  salvation  of  China.  The  work  of  our  Board  is 
at  present  in  a  flourishing  condition.  Pardon  me  if  I  use  the 
slang  expression  and  tell  you  that  our  work  is  simply  "  booming." 
New  converts  are  increasing  at  a  tremendous  rate,  and  the  present 
golden  opportunity  for  doing  missionary  work  will  not  last  long. 
Are  you  willing  to  seize  the  advantage  and  make  good  use  of  this 
opportunity  to  reap  the  harvest  that  is  ready  and  waiting  for  you? 

Let  us  not  look  at  the  sunny  side  of  your  work  only.  It  is 
characteristic  of  the  Christian  religion  that  it  is  not  welcomed  at 
first,  wherever  it  goes.  Jesus  himself  was  persecuted  and  crucified, 
and  many  of  his  disciples  were  put  to  death  likewise.  And  it  has 
happened  time  and  again  in  church  history  that  the  disciples  of 


ADDRESSES    BY    NATIVE    CHRISTIANS.  131 

Jesus  Christ  have  had  to  give  up  their  earthly  lives  for  the  truth 
and  to  die  for  the  principle  for  which  they  stood.  Why,  then, 
do  you  wonder  that  some  of  your  missionaries  were  unwelcome 
in  China  and  that  some  of  them  were  massacred?  It  is  hard  for 
the  average  Chinese  to  understand  your  religious  motives.  They 
cannot  understand  why  you  have  spent  a  large  amount  of  money 
and  energy  and  made  great  sacrifices  to  send  out  these  mission- 
aries; but  let  me  assure  you  that  some  day  they  will  all  under- 
stand and  will  find  that  the  missionaries  are  the  best  friends  they 
have  in  China,  Continue  your  work  and  do  your  best;  you  will 
feel  repaid  at  the  end.  There  will  be  no  regret  for  whatever 
energy,  money,  and  prayer  you  may  be  able  to  put  into  this 
missionary  enterprise. 

Before  I  sit  down  let  me,  in  behalf  of  the  happy  and  grateful 
native  converts  of  the  North  China  and  South  China  missions, 
and  of  the  Fu  Chow  and  Shansi  missions,  express  to  you  our 
hearty  thanks  for  what  you  have  done  for  us  in  the  past,  and  for 
what  you  are  doing  for  us  now,  and  let  me  take  the  liberty  to 
thank  you  in  advance  for  what  you  will  continue  to  do  for  us  in 
the  future. 

On  behalf  of  my  brothers  who  are  still  in  the  darkness,  let  me 
earnestly  beseech  you,  my  dear  friends,  "  Come  over  and  help 
us."     We  do  need  you. 

Greeting  from  H.  H.  K'ung,  of  China,  a  Graduate  of  Oberlin 

College,  and  now  a  Graduate  Student  at  Yale 

University. 

Mr.  President  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Conference:  I 
come  to  you  as  a  native  Christian  of  China,  and  a  member  of  the 
Shansi  Mission,  to  which  many  of  your  devoted  missionaries 
belonged,  —  men  and  women  of  noblest  character  and  Christlike 
spirit,  who  counted  not  their  lives  dear  unto  themselves,  but 
rather  died  for  Christ  and  their  converts.  I,  as  one  of  the  products 
of  the  American  Board's  Shansi  Mission,  take  great  pleasure  in 
bringing  an  expression  of  deepest  gratitude  and  of  hearty  congratu- 
lation from  the  Christians  of  China  to  the  churches  of  this  blessed 
land  upon  this  memorable  celebration  of  the  mother  Board  of 
Missions  at  this  historic  place. 

Through  the  love  of  God  we  are  brought  face  to  face  here  from 
the  ends  of  the  earth,  not  as  strangers,  but  rather  as  a  brother  meets 


132  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

another  brother  whose  welfare  concerns  him.  I  suppose  that  it 
was  with  such  a  brotherly  feeling  and  spirit  that  the  five  young 
Williams  College  students  were  led  to  consecrate  their  lives  to 
God,  and  to  people  who  were  unknown  to  them. 

We,  the  native  Christians  of  China,  feel  grateful  to  you,  not 
merely  because  you  have  sent  your  missionaries  to  bring  Western 
learning  to  our  youth,  and  your  healing  art  to  cure  our  sick  ones, 
but  also  because  you  have  shown  us,  through  your  representatives, 
how  to  live  a  rational  and  God-fearing  life.  Again,  we  are  grateful 
to  you,  not  only  because  your  missionaries  have  done  what  they 
could  for  a  few  individuals,  but  more  especially  for  the  interest 
that  they  have  taken  in  the  welfare  of  our  whole  nation.  Indeed, 
we  have  found  them  to  be  patient,  earnest,  faithful,  and  cheerful, 
ready  either  for  a  welcome  or  for  rejection.  We  are  glad  to  bear 
testimony  that  your  missionaries  have  proved  themselves  worthy 
of  the  title,  "  Fishers  of  men."  For  all  of  this  the  Christians  of 
China  wish  to  express  their  appreciation,  as  did  her  keen  but  non- 
Christian  statesman,  the  famous  viceroy,  Tuan  Fang,  who  said 
at  a  banquet  in  New  York  City,  "  For  all  of  these  services  your 
missionaries  have  rendered  us,  you  will  not  find  China  ungrateful.' ' 

We  congratulate  you  upon  the  successful  work  that  your  Board 
has  done  in  the  last  century,  and  we  are  glad  to  hear  that  the 
members  of  the  Congregational  churches  have  responded  to  the 
call  of  the  Board's  need  and  that  the  million  dollars  have  been 
raised.  Yet,  above  all,  we  are  happy  to  observe  the  wisdom  of 
the  Board  in  selecting  as  officers  and  missionaries  those  who  have 
proved  adequate  for  the  hard  tasks  of  the  great  missionary 
movement. 

As  for  the  urgent  need  of  China  at  this  critical  time,  compared 
with  which  there  is  no  equal  in  her  long  history  of  four  thousand 
years,  I  cannot  help  wishing  that  I  might  have  the  power  to 
impress  upon  every  one  of  you  at  this  historical  gathering  the 
fact  that  the  "  Giant  of  the  Far  East  "  is  waking  from  his  sleep, 
and  in  the  very  near  future  dear  old  Cathay,  the  long-lived 
nation,  will  take  her  seat  among  the  first-class  powers  of  the  world. 
Then  the  Christian  people  of  this  country  will  have  cause  to  be 
proud  that  America  has  had  a  share  in  the  great  regeneration  of 
China. 

"  We  can  do  it  if  we  will."  Let  us  take  that  motto  of  the 
founders  of  this  great  mission  board  and  make  it  the  prayer  of 
our  church,  and  answer  the  Lord,  "  Yes,  we  can  do  it,  and,  God 


ADDRESSES    BY    NATIVE   CHRISTIANS.  133 

helping  vus,  we  will  do  it."  Will  you  do  it?  Will  you  help  to 
make  the  great  old  empire  a  Christian  tower?  This  is  your  golden 
opportunity! 

"  Hark!  the  voice  of  Jesus  calling, 
'  Who  "will  go  and  work  today? 
Fields  are  white  and  harvest  waiting; 
Who  will  bear  the  sheaves  away?  ' 
Long  and  loud  the  Master  calleth, 

Rich  reward  he  offers  thee; 
Who  will  answer,  gladly  saying, 
'  Here  am  I,  O  Lord,  send  me.'  " 

Greeting  from  Rev.  Oscar  M.  Chamberlain,  of  Turkey. 

I  have  the  pleasure  to  greet  you  and  tell  you  of  what  the  foreign 
missions  have  meant  to  Turkey.  Time  will  not  allow  me  to  enter 
upon  the  details  of  this  subject.  I  shall  only  endeavor  to  give  you 
an  idea  of  what  the  American  Board  has  done  for  Turkey,  as  a 
result  of  my  personal  experience  and  observation.  No  statement 
of  Turkey  is  complete  without  the  account  of  the  development 
of  the  missionary  enterprises.  The  missionary  efforts  have  been 
successful  mainly  among  the  Armenians. 

At  first  the  work  of  the  missionaries  was  rather  evangelistic, 
there  was  comparatively  little  of  systematic  education.  With 
the  gradual  rise  of  communities  it  became  absolutely  necessary 
that  attention  should  be  given  to  the  principles  underlying  the 
conduct  of  communities  in  far  more  nourishing  lands.  Some  of 
the  missionaries  felt  that  they  were  simply  heralds  of  the  gospel, 
and  could  not  see  the  absolute  necessity  of  secular  education,  while 
others  realized  its  importance  to  the  development  of  national  life. 
Moreover,  the  demand  for  this  increased  steadily.  Young  men 
of  insatiate  desire  for  development  sought  higher  learning;  they 
saw  before  them  opening  a  sphere  of  research.  If  the  missionaries 
failed  in  supplying  them  with  it,  they  would,  perhaps,  resort  to 
what,  then,  were  infidel  schools  in  Europe.  They  realized  that 
evangelism  and  education  must  go  hand  in  hand,  and  such  recogni- 
tion of  the  importance  of  secular  education  gave  birth  to  many 
primary,  intermediate,  and  high  schools,  and  colleges  of  learning, 
and  aside  from  these  there  have  been  established  orphanages, 
hospitals,  and  a  variety  of  institutions,  which  owe  their  inception 
to  the  supreme  influence  of  missions. 

The  question  is  often  asked,  What  are  the  relations  between 
the  missionaries  and  the  Turkish  government?    There  is  no  doubt 


134  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

that  the  Turkish  government  views  them  as  enemies  of  the  present 
Turkish  rule,  but  this  is  in  no  sense  true.  The  American  mission- 
aries have  assumed  the  position  that  the  Turkish  government  is 
the  government  of  the  country,  and  its  laws  must  be  loyally  ob- 
served, but  if  these  laws  are  glaring  violations  of  personal  right 
and  "  common-sense  "  they  will  do  all  they  can  to  secure  a  correct- 
ive measure.  Even  in  the  attempts  made  to  stir  up  revolu- 
tionary movements  in  some  sections  of  the  country,  they  have 
held  themselves  absolutely  aloof  from  such  movements.  How 
ever,  their  instructions  and  preaching  have  inevitably  created  an 
intense  love  for  liberty,  religious  and  political  as  well ;  they  have 
brought  light  into  the  empire,  and  light  is  always  disturbing  where 
there  is  corruption. 

Individually  these  missionaries  represent  the  very  highest  grade 
of  capacity  and  strong  character.  The  record  of  their  achieve- 
ments in  literature,  in  research,  and  in  education  is  not  surpassed 
by  that  of  any  class  of  men  and  women  in  the  world,  and  I  chal- 
lenge the  man  who  can  prove  the  contrary.  The  words  of  Sir 
Philip  Currie  in  connection  with  the  late  events  in  Turkey  will 
stand  as  perpetual  rebuttal  to  any  false  charges.  He  said:  "  The 
one  bright  spot  in  all  the  darkness  that  has  covered  Asiatic 
Turkey  has  been  the  heroism,  the  prudence,  and  the  common- 
sense  of  the  American  missionaries." 

Now,  in  order  to  make  it  more  personal,  I  will  state  to  you  my 
own  experience  of  what  the  American  missionaries  have  done  for 
me.  I  was  born  from  Christian  parents,  who  belonged  to  the 
Armenian  Gregorian  church,  but  lived  the  lives  of  non-Christians. 
Only  a  lad  then,  I  heard  of  the  new  ideas  which  the  missionaries 
propagated,  and  became  interested  in  learning  more  of  these  new 
"ideas.  The  result  was  the  birth  of  a  strong  desire  in  me  to  embrace 
the  Protestant  faith.  I  told  my  father  that  I  had  decided  to  join 
the  Congregational  church.  He  became  intensely  provoked,  and 
compelled  me  to  leave  home  immediately.  He  renounced  me  as 
his  son.  I  left  home  with  no  penny  in  my  pocket,  hungry  for  a 
day,  and  no  one  knew  it  until  one  of  my  schoolmates  found  out 
that  I  was  hungry  and  kindly  offered  me  a  penny  with  which  to 
buy  some  bread.  I  explained  to  Rev.  Albert  Hubbard  (mis- 
sionary then  at  Sivas,  Turkey)  all  about  my  discouraging  situa- 
tion. He  was  interested  in  me  and  was  very  much  in  sympathy 
with  my  situation.  At  last  he  said,  "  Be  of  good  courage,  I  will 
stand  by  you."     These  words  breathed  into  my  soul  a  new  cour- 


ADDRESSES    I'.V    NATIVE   CHRISTIANS.  135 

age,  and  inspired  my  heart  with  a  fresh  ambition  to  suffer  all 
things  for  the  Master's  sake.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  my  father 
admitted  me  into  his  home  later  on,  seeing  the  value  and  the 
transforming  power  of  the  gospel. 

During  all  the  years  that  I  attended  the  American  Normal 
School  and  Anatolia  College  the  influence  of  those  missionaries 
elevated  my  ideals  and  molded  my  Christian  character.  Their 
lives  and  personalities  have  impressed  me  very  deeply,  and  espe- 
cially their  intense  earnestness  in  the  message  of  the  gospel  is 
what  has  created  in  me  a  new  ambition  to  live  for  God  and  bear 
witness  for  the  crucified  Lord. 

Honorable  members  of  the  American  Board  and  dear  friends, 
1  stand  before  you  as  a  representative  of  this  people  and  witness 
to  you  for  the  work  of  the  missionaries  in  Turkey,  and  desire, 
on  their  behalf,  to  express  my  appreciation  of  the  work  of  the 
missionaries  who  left  their  native  land  in  order  to  share  in  the 
sufferings  of  those  people  across  the  ocean,  denying  to  themselves 
many  privileges  here  just  for  the  sake  of  comforting  them  with  a 
living  message.  We  thank  you  still  more  for  the  bountiful  aid 
which  you  have  rendered  in  order  to  make  the  light  of  the  gospel 
shine  once  more  on  the  eclipsed  mountain  tops  of  the  land  of 
Armenia,  which  accepted  Christianity  as  a  nation  for  the  first 
time,  and  was  once  a  center  of  Christian  civilization. 

My  earnest  prayer  is  that  God  bless  this  nation  to  send  out 
more  men  and  women  to  preach  to  them  who  are  crying,  "  Come 
over  into  Armenia,  and  help  us."  I  most  surely  believe  that  the 
spirit*  that  moved  the  hearts  of  those  young  men  at  the  Haystack 
Meeting  to  lay  the  foundation  of  such  an  enterprise  will  also 
move  many  a  heart  here  to  a  more  energetic  enterprise  and  more 
enthusiastic  service,  for  those  who  are  intrusted  to  your  care  and 
efforts;  for  in  so  doing  you  will  fulfill  the  sentiment  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, who  said,  "  To  serve  Armenia  is  to  serve  civilization," 
and  in  so  doing  especially  you  will  fulfill  the  command  of  the 
Master,  "  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations." 

Greeting  from  Stephen  ka  Ndunge  Gumede,  of  South  Africa, 

a  Graduate  of  Wilberforce  University,  Ohio,  and 

now  a  Student  at  the  University  of  Michigan. 

I  esteem  it  a  privilege  and  a  high  honor  to  be  invited  to  say  a 
few  words  on  this  great  occasion  in  behalf  of  my  fellow  people 


136  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

beyond  the  sea.  I  am  requested  by  your  invitation  to  bring  their 
greetings  and  to  speak  for  them.  As  their  representative,  I  bring  to 
you,  one  and  all,  hearty  greetings  and  congratulations;  I  bring  their 
good  wishes  and  an  abundance  of  love  for  their  mother  church. 

When  Ave  Zulus  think  of  the  Haystack  Prayer  Meeting,  the 
story  of  over  seventy  years  ago,  handed  down  to  us  by  those  who 
can  bridge  that  mighty  gap,  comes  vividly  to  our  minds.  It  is 
the  story  of  the  brave  missionary  pioneers  who  made  themselves 
exiles  from  home  and  cultured  society,  who  faced  the  stormy  seas 
with  the  true  missionary  courage.  In  your  native  land  see  them 
blazing  their  way  through  natural  forests;  see  them  crossing  the 
arid  plains;  see  them  on  their  way  to  Umgungundhlovu,  there  to 
plead  with  the  Zulu  king  to  let  the  "  sons  of  heaven  "  go  from  out 
the  bondage  of  heathenism;  finally,  see  them  declaring  to  the 
king  and  his  subjects  the  Great-Great  whom  they  ignorantly  did 
worship. 

In  the  lowly  kraals  and  in  the  scattered  mission  stations  the 
names  of  Lindley  and  Adams,  Grout  and  Venable,  Champion  and 
Wilson,  —  yes,  and  the  names  of  those  heroes  who  followed  them, 
who  now  lie  buried  on  the  field  of  their  labor,  on  whose  graves  the 
Natal  winds  chant  the  perpetual  requiem,  —  their  names  shall 
ever  be  household  words.  Although  they  are  dead  their  memory 
is  precious;  it  grows  brighter  with  the  years.  Our  love  for  them 
shall  be 

"  Deeper  than  the  pillared  skies, 
High  as  that  peak  in  heaven  where  Milton  kneels, 
Deep  as  that  grave  in  hell  where  Caesar  lies." 

Time  would  not  permit  me  to  talk  of  the  consecrated  men  and 
women  who  are  today  carrying  on  the  work  started  by  the  pio- 
neers, who  are  watching  our  every  forward  movement  as  a  parent 
watches  a  child,  who  see  to  it  that  our  growth  is  healthful. 

My  fellow  people  would  be  ungrateful  were  they  to  ignore  the 
sources  from  whence  they  derive  these  benefits  and  advantages. 
To  you,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  who  are  faithfully  directing  and 
guarding  our  interests  without  any  compensation  and  with  no 
thought  of  reward  —  to  you  they  would  have  me  express  their 
gratitude.  The  infinite  love  they  have  for  you  cannot  be  ex- 
pressed by  a  finite  word;  for,  indeed,  there  are  thoughts  and  ideas 
which  the  human  speech,  creation's  divinest  work  though  it  may 
be,  is  too  weak  to  voice. 


ADDRESSES    BY    NATIVE    CHRISTIANS.  137 

During  the  past  seventy-one  years  much  has  been  accomplished, 
but  the  present  and  the  future  call  for  more  efforts.  Fired  by 
the  spirit  of  the  twentieth  century  —  the  spirit  of  progress  —  the 
Amaxoza  and  the  Zulus,  leaders  in  educational  movements,  are 
on  the  threshold  of  a  great  educational  awakening.  They  are 
embarked  upon  a  revolution  in  thought  and  life.  Their  desire 
for  education  is  so  great  that  it  has  allured  them  from  their  fire- 
sides and  has  made  them  the  globe-trotters.  Their  determination, 
their  shibboleth,  seems  to  be,  "  to  catch  up  with  the  vanguard  of 
civilization. " 

At  times  like  these,  when  mighty  movements  are  going  on,  they 
are  in  danger  of  setting  up  new  gods;  of  forgetting  the  high  ideals 
of  the  past  and  following  those  paths  which  will  lead  them  into 
the  quicksands  of  dishonor  and  despair. 

It  is  of  prime  importance,  therefore,  that  their  friends  stand  out 
and  hold  the  light  to  guide  their  footsteps.  They  must  see  to  the 
laying  of  the  foundation,  that  it  is  broad  and  firm.  What  better 
foundation  can  be  laid  than  a  broad  and  liberal  education? 

They  have  outgrown  that  education  which  is  bounded  by  the 
three  Rs.  The  need,  therefore,  is  not  so  much  for  founding  new 
schools,  but  the  most  imperative  need  is  to  put  to  the  standard 
of  modern  efficiency  the  schools  at  Amanzimtoti,  Inanda,  and 
Umzumbe.  The  centennial  celebration  must  mark  changes  in  the 
curricula  of  these  schools. 

Hereafter  they  must  be  schools  for  higher  education  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word.  They  must  give  the  native  youths  that  edu- 
cation which  will  fit  them  for  better  living  and  better  serving; 
that  education  which  will  supplant  the  tribal  egoism  with  the 
altruism  that  will  beget  service  for  the  whole.  They  must  "  rear 
up  minds  with  the  aspirations  and  faculties  above  the  herd, 
capable  of  leading  on  their  countrymen  to  greater  achievement  in 
virtue,  intelligence,  and  general  well  being." 

The  Zulu  Christian  industrial  school,  founded  by  one  of  your 
sons,  must  teach  them  that  all  labor  is  honorable,  and  only  idleness 
is  a  crime.  Although  through  the  "  poll-tax  fuss  "  the  colony 
has  been  plunged  into  war,  I  still  have  great  faith  in  the  Natal 
government.  In  this  noble  work  it  will,  as  in  the  past,  cooperate 
with  you;  it  will  increase  its  annual  appropriation  for  native 
schools;  it  will  second  you  in  every  effort.  For  a  system  of 
primary  schools,  culminating  in  schools  for  higher  education,  is 
the  surest  guaranty  a  colony  can  have  for  peace,  respect  for 


13S  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

authorities,  reverence  for  the  laws  and  the  lofty  ideals  of  citizen- 
ship. Where  the  masses  are  ignorant  there  is  no  peace.  Igno- 
rance never  did  and  never  will  help  any  government.  When  the 
Natal  government  shall  look  more  after  the  education  and  the 
development  of  all  his  Majesty's  subjects  in  the  colony,  it  will  be 
safe  from  the  attacks  of  Bambata  and  his  followers;  homes  will  not 
be  laid  waste;  promising  young  men  will  not  perish  on  the  battle- 
field; women  will  not  be  bowed  down  by  a  grief  too  bitter  for  tears. 
These  disconnected  thoughts,  Mr.  President,  will  run  off  into 
the  gulf  of  oblivion  and  there  be  forgotten.  But  may  the  noble 
voices  ringing  in  earnest  tones  from  the  far-off  native  land  for 
education,  remain  with  you  and  with  this  body  as  a  perpetual 
prayer. 

Greeting  from  Rev.  S.  Sato,  of  Japan,  and  of  Oberlin 
Theological  Seminary. 

I  am  much  pleased  to  have  the  honor  of  speaking  to  you  on 
this  great  memorial  day  as  a  representative  of  the  Doshisha  Col- 
lege, but  I  am  very  sorry  that  I  can  speak  neither  Anglo-English 
nor  American-English. 

I  hope  you  will  not  rebuke  me  for  speaking  my  own  English, 
that  is  to  say,  Japanese-English. 

When  the  late  Dr.  Neesima  came  back  from  America  to  Japan 
it  was  a  short  time  after  the  restoration.  At  that  time  the  Japa- 
nese government  needed  such  a  man  as  Dr.  Neesima,  who  was  well 
acquainted  with  the  conditions  of  foreign  countries.  So  they 
offered  him  a  high  official  position,  but  he  declined  it,  preferring 
to  establish  the  Doshisha  College  at  Kyoto  with  Drs.  Davis, 
Green,  and  Learned,  American  missionaries. 

At  first  they  were  very  much  persecuted  by  the  prefecture 
government  and  the  priests  of  Honguwawji  temple.  Nevertheless 
in  a  few  years  the  attendance  at  the  college  increased  rapidly. 

Dr.  Neesima  was  much  encouraged,  and  in  the  seventeenth  year 
of  Meiji,  that  is,  1883,  he  declared  his  wish  to  change  the  Doshisha 
College  to  a  university.  He  raised  a  great  sum  of  money  in  Japan, 
but  it  was  not  large  enough,  so  he  came  to  this  country  and  went 
to  Europe  to  ask  his  friends  to  help  him.  Though  he  was  not  able 
to  accomplish  his  object  then,  yet  the  Doshisha  has  grown  to  be  a 
noted  institution,  not  only  in  Japan,  but  in  other  countries. 

After  the  late  Dr.  Neesima's  death,  many  graduates  withdrew 
from  the  Doshisha.     Some  of  them  became  mayors  of  large  cities 


ADDRESSES    BY    NATIVE    CHRISTIANS.  139 

or  managers  of  the  imperial  Japanese  bank,  and  other  important 
financial  institutions.  Others  have  high  government  positions, 
and  still  others  became  members  of  the  Imperial  Diet,  or  famous 
editors.  This  seemed  to  be  a  great  crash  to  the  Doshisha.  Yes, 
it  was  a  great  blow  to  the  Doshisha  at  that  time.  But  it  was 
God's  will,  I  think.  By  their  going  out  they  prepared  positions 
for  their  followers.  So  a  great  many  fields  are  opened  to  gradu- 
ates of  the  Doshisha. 

Now  they,  graduates  of  the  Doshisha,  are  establishing  their 
influence  in  every  branch  of  society  in  Japan.  They  may  not  be 
working  directly  for  the  conversion  of  the  people  to  Christianity, 
but  they  are  preparing  the  way  for  preachers  and  pastors  by 
their  good  reputation,  ability,  and  trustworthiness.  They  are 
influential  factors,  we  may  say,  in  the  present  social  upheaval, 
that  is  to  say,  moral  elevation  of  the  country. 

These  things  may  be  considered  by  some  to  be  secularization 
of  religious  principles,  but  I  don't  think  so,  because  the  object  of 
the  propagation  of  Christianity  is  to  reform  society  and  help  the 
people  to  lead  Christlike  lives. 

The  result  is  that  new  Japan  is  much  benefited  by  the  Doshisha 
and  American  missionaries.  Even  among  the  Japanese  in  the 
Hawaiian  Islands,  and  on  the  Pacific  coast,  you  will  find  that 
almost  all  of  the  leading  men,  pastors,  editors,  and  business  men, 
have  been  related  to  the  Doshisha,  directly  or  indirectly. 

Greeting  from  Rev.  Philip  Reitinger,  of  Bohemia. 

I  feel  deeply  grateful  for  being  permitted  to  stand  before  you, 
honored  officers  of  this  mission  Board,  and  before  you,  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  representing  the  Congregational  churches. 

When  asked  to  bring  to  this  meeting  the  greetings  of  the  people 
of  Austria,  I  found  it  encouraging  that  your  honored  secretary 
wrote,  "  Only  a  few  words  would  be  possible."  For  my  tongue  is 
yet  bound,  and  too  awkward  to  express  in  correct  English  my  own 
feelings  of  gratitude  to  God  and  to  you,  Congregational  Christians, 
and  still  less  able  to  express  well  the  feeling  of  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  my  people,  some  of  them  in  this  country,  others 
beyond  the  sea. 

And  when  your  honored  secretary  wrote:  "  The  fact  of  your 
presence  will  speak  perhaps  even  louder  than  your  words,"  he 
unwittingly  said  what  has  become  true  in  my  life  writh  a  very 


140  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

special  meaning.  For  had  it  not  been  for  the  messengers  of  the 
Cross  whom  you  had  sent  over  the  sea  into  Bohemia's  priest-ridden 
masses,  instead  of  standing  before  you  today  saved  by  the  grace 
of  God,  the  Moldau  River  in  Bohemia  would  be  my  grave,  and  my 
soul  lost  forever. 

For  the  third  time  I  come  in  direct  contact  with  this  honored 
American  Board.  Unforgotten  stands  before  my  soul  your 
missionary,  Dr.  H.  A.  Schaumer,  and  his  helper,  William  Frey- 
tag.  I  see  him  yet,  as,  in  1873,  in  the  street  of  Budweis,  Bohemia, 
putting  a  large  loaf  of  rye  bread  into  the  hands  of  a  Catholic 
widow  to  help  satisfy  the  pangs  of  hunger  of  five  unfed  children, 
that  loaf  of  bread  becoming  indeed  the  symbol  of  the  higher  bread 
which  for  two  years,  in  gospel  meeting  and  Sunday-school,  has 
been  broken  to  the  widow  and  her  children,  only  to  be  torn  from 
them  by  the  ruthless  persecution  of  a  Roman  Catholic  bishop, 
who  drove  the  missionary  from  the  city,  but  was  too  impotent  to 
rob  the  mother  of  the  Bible  and  tear  out  the  many  precious  seed 
corns  from  God's  Word. 

Ten  years  later,  misled  by  bad  companions,  disregarding  all 
councils  of  wisdom,  by  passions  chained  to  vices  ruinous  to  body 
and  soul,  living  a  life  too  dissolute  to  be  described  here,  by 
exposure  driven  to  the  brink  of  despair,  I  stood  on  the  bridge 
over  the  Moldau  River  to  end  a  miserable  life,  when  through  the 
darkened  mind  flashed  the  thought  about  the  God  whom  ten 
years  before  I  had  learned  to  know  in  that  Protestant  American 
Sunday-school,  and,  afraid  to  die  and  to  meet  that  God,  I  turned 
away  to  try  life  over  again.  Just  then,  by  the  leading  of  God,  for 
the  second  time  in  my  life  I  met  the  same  messengers  of  your 
Board  in  Briinn,  Moravia.  After  eighteen  months  of  intense 
struggle  I  could  rejoice  in  the  saving  power  of  the  cross  of 
Christ  and  could  consecrate  my  life  to  the  service  of  other  dying 
souls. 

But  do  I  weary  you  with  a  tale  of  a  saved  individual?  Thank 
God  the  names  of  Budweis,  Bohemia,  and  Briinn,  Moravia,  are 
again  on  the  list  of  the  Austrian  Mission.  For  years  they  were 
there.  Was  the  money  and  labor  spent  in  vain?  I  hear  yet 
my  friend,  the  dying  college  student,  on  his  deathbed,  beg  your 
missionary  to  be  received  into  the  church,  in  spite  of  the  knowledge 
that  a  short  time  before,  at  the  grave  of  a  converted  sister,  the 
government  did  not  permit  even  the  Lord's  Prayer  to  be  said. 
And  there  is  my  own  young  brother,  a  boy  of  nine  years,  too 


ADDRESSES    BY    NATIVE    CHRISTIANS.  141 

weak  to  hold  himself  up  alone  in  bed.  Yet  kneel  he  must,  day 
after  day  on  the  floor,  then  the  bed,  to  pray  to  his  Saviour.  Wish- 
ing that  he  could  go  without  dying  to  his  Saviour,  in  the  last  hour 
he  assures  his  mother  that  he  would  soon  send  her  the  name  of 
the  street  and  the  number  of  the  house,  so  that  his  mother  might 
find  him  in  the  heavenly  city.  This  is  the  child  of  the  mother 
who,  not  long  before  this,  by  police  force  wanted  to  bring  home  the 
oldest  daughter  for  the  crime  of  accepting  the  Saviour  and  joining 
that  despised  American  Free  Church.  That  daughter,  now  for 
many  years  in  the  service  of  our  beloved  home  missionary  society, 
has  been  bringing  souls  to  Christ  from  among  the  multitudes  of 
Bohemians  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  and  at  the  same  time  helped  educate 
missionaries  for  our  Slavic  home  work.  That  mother  and  another 
daughter  have  given  their  hearts  to  God  and  are  members  of  his 
church.  In  Austria  one  labors  as  a  deaconess;  in  the  state  of  Iowa 
two,  father  and  son,  both  missionary  pastors,  are  helping  redeem 
this  land  for  Christ.  Near  Ward  Academy,  in  South  Dakota, 
another  missionary  pastor,  born  into  the  new  life  in  Moravia,  is 
now  upholding  the  banner  of  the  cross.  In  such  ways  even  seem- 
ingly lost  labor  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Missions  is  repaid. 

Roman  Catholicism  in  Austria  has  borne  her  daughters,  —  blind- 
ing ignorance,  dead  formalism,  religious  indifference,  coarse 
atheism.  Awakening,  but  yet  superficially,  the  nations  of  Austria 
begin  to  cry,  "  Away  from  Rome!  "  The  small  number  of  Protes- 
tant state  churches  needed  a  stirring  up,  an  awakening  of  con- 
science, a  rebuke  for  inactivity,  an  inspiration  to  work.  The  Lord 
through  you  has  sent  forth  what  was  needed.  The  leaven  of 
the  kingdom  is  newly  put  into  Bohemia,  the  Spirit  of  God  is  stir- 
ring again  the  land  of  John  Huss.  A  young  generation  is  rising, 
fully  able  to  touch  the  social,  the  national,  and  spiritual  life  in 
unmistakable  and  undeniable  ways.  Regeneration  is  on  the  way, 
has  begun.  And  at  the  day  when  the  nations  shall  "  carry  the 
glory  and  honor  of  the  nations  into  the  city  of  God,"  how  many 
sons  and  daughters  of  Bohemia  there  will  be  who  will  sing  the 
praises  of  the  Lamb,  which  to  know  they  have  learned  through 
the  work  of  our  beloved  missionary  board. 

In  the  name  of  that  people  I  say  today:  God  bless  you,  honored 
officers  of  the  American  Board;  God  be  your  richest  reward, 
Congregational  churches  of  America. 


142  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

Greeting  from  Senor  Frederic  R.  Ponce,  Professor  in 

COLEGIO    INTERNACIONAL   OF   GUADALAJARA,    MEXICO. 

A  prominent  statesman  of  my  country  said,  some  time  ago, 
that  the  religious  seed  the  missionaries  were  sowing  among  us 
could  not  be  fruitful  because  we  are  not  able  to  receive  any 
religious  idea  that  was  not  connected  with  our  human  sacrifices. 
But  we  rejoice  that  our  great  statesman  was  in  error,  because  the 
work  of  the  Board  is  at  present  so  extensive  in  my  country;  our 
churches  are  increasing  to  a  degree  that  is  very  satisfactory,  and 
our  schools  are  gaining  the  good-will  of  a  great  part  of  the  nation. 
We,  the  natives,  are  clearly  proving  that  we  are  susceptible  of 
receiving  not  only  a  kind  of  rough  religion,  but  the  best  kind; 
that  by  the  gospel  of  our  Lord,  owing  to  the  consecration  and  the 
efforts  that  your  missionaries  are  making  among  us,  we  are  enter- 
ing into  an  era  of  spiritual  progress  such  as  may  be  shown  by  the 
reports  given  by  the  different  workers  in  my  country. 

I  am  glad  to  manifest  to  you  that  my  government  appreciates, 
more  than  ever  before,  the  good  kind  of  work  that  missionaries  are 
doing  in  Mexico,  and,  in  some  of  the  states,  has  liberally  offered 
its  good  influences  in  order  to  give  a  more  important  character  to 
that  work. 

We  expect  that,  in  a  future  not  distant,  God  will  prepare  impor- 
tant things  for  our  Christian  churches  in  Mexico,  because  although 
our  missionaries  are  very  few  in  number,  they  are  very  strong  in 
mind,  and  they  are  consecrated  to  the  hard  work  of  transforming 
a  country  which  for  many  years  was  the  cradle  of  fanaticism  and 
revolutions  of  all  kinds. 

For  the  good  selection  that  you  have  made  of  your  missionaries 
to  be  sent  to  my  country,  and  for  the  transformation  that  our 
religious  life  has  experienced,  owing  to  your  initiative  in  sending 
to  us  your  spiritual  light,  we  sincerely  give  you  all  many  thanks. 
We  sincerely  wish  that  you  accept  our  gratitude  for  your  valuable 
cooperation  in  sending  to  Mexico  your  noble  missionaries,  your 
money,  and,  above  all,  your  Christian  spirit  and  your  prayers. 
Be  sure  that  God  will  pay  you  abundantly. 


THE    MEN    OF   THE    HAYSTACK.  143 


THANK  OFFERING  AND  PRAYER  MEETING. 

Mr.  John  R.  Mott  was  in  charge  of  the  exercises  which  cul- 
minated in  a  thank  offering  of  generous  proportions.  He  spoke  of 
the  year  to  come,  of  the  need  of  yet  greater  devotion  of  money  and 
lives  to  the  work.  The  offering  was  made  a  spiritual  act  of  wor- 
ship and  not  a  mere  "  taking  of  the  collection."  Pledges  were 
sent  in  on  the  cards,  and  later  these  were  announced  from  the  plat- 
form, until  they  came  too  fast  for  the  readers  to  keep  pace  with 
them.  Afterwards  the  totals,  amounting  to  upwards  of  twelve 
thousand  dollars,  were  given  out,  and  all  joined  in  singing  the 
Doxology.  Subsequent  gifts  made  the  whole  amount  up  to 
$12,918.45. 

After  the  offering,  Dr.  Luther  D.  Wishard  told  of  the  series  of 
personal  factors  that  have  been  engaged  together  as  providential 
causes  of  the  growth  of  foreign  missions.  This  most  interesting 
address  was  followed  up  by  a  brief  prayer  meeting.  Toward  its 
close  the  chiming  of  the  college  bells  was  heard  for  fifteen  minutes 
pealing  forth  an  invitation  to  an  organ  recital  which  was  held  at 
the  close  of  day  in  the  Memorial  Chapel. 


THE  MEN  OF  THE  HAYSTACK  THE  FORERUNNERS  OF 
THE  STUDENT  VOLUNTEER  MOVEMENT. 

y 

Luther  D.  Wishard. 

Dwight  L.  Moody  pronounced  the  Christian  uprising  in  uni- 
versities the  greatest  Christian  movement  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. It  is  surely  fitting  that  the  unconscious  part  which  the 
men  of  the  haystack  performed  in  the  initial  stage  of  one  of  the 
greatest  eras  in  church  history  should  be  fully  recognized  at  this 
celebration  of  the  birth  of  American  foreign  missions. 

It  is  a  matter  of  no  ordinary  interest  that  the  members  of  that 
first  band  of  student  volunteers  for  foreign  missions  sought  to 
extend  their  spirit  and  aim  to  other  colleges.  A  deputation  visited 
Union.  One  of  the  men  enrolled  as  a  student  in  Middlebury  and 
another  in  Yale,  in  order  that,  by  permanent  residence  in  those 
institutions,  they  might  reproduce  the  Williams  program.     Their 


144  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

efforts,  however,  did  not  seem  to  effect  their  purpose.  The  tide  of 
spiritual  life  in  the  American  colleges  at  that  time  was  near  its 
lowest  ebb.  The  colleges  were  fields  for  missionary  endeavor 
rather  than  recruiting  stations  for  outgoing  missionaries.  Their 
seeming  failure,  however,  was  not  real,  as  we  shall  now  proceed 
to  show  by  stretching  before  you  a  chain  of  facts  whose  links 
span  the  century,  and  connect  the  five  men  of  the  haystack  with 
a  movement  which  has  mustered  the  young  men  of  five  continents. 

The  first  of  these  golden  links  already  alluded  to  consisted  in 
the  effort  of  the  Williams'  men  to  make  the  missionary  movement 
intercollegiate,  the  only  visible  result  of  which  was  the  mission 
band  organized  at  Andover,  whose  ranks  were  reinforced  by  the 
addition  of  Adoniram  Judson,  Gordon  Hall,  and  others. 

The  second  link  consisted  in  the  formation  of  the  American 
Board,  the  first  division  of  the  present  grand  army  of  American 
missionary  societies  and  missionaries.  Shortly  after  this,  the 
men  of  the  haystack  disappeared  from  the  records  of  the  century's 
missionary  history.  James  Richards  went  to  Ceylon,  where  he 
speedily  finished  his  work  and  was  laid  to  rest  under  a  tamarind 
tree  on  a  college  campus,  a  fitting  resting-place  for  one  who  had 
been  connected  with  events  which  were  destined  to  make  the 
colleges  of  Ceylon,  India,  Asia,  and  the  world  home  and  foreign 
mission  stations.  Mills  also  soon  fought  his  fight  and  finished  his 
course  and  was  buried  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  on  whose  bosom  hosts 
of  missionaries  were  to  be  borne  on  their  way  to  the  "  darkest 
corners  of  the  earth,"  which,  at  that  epoch-making  meeting  under 
the  edge  of  the  haystack,  Mills  declared  could  be  reached  by  the 
influence  of  that  little  band  of  then  unheard-of  college  boys. 

Two  of  the  American  Board's  first  missionaries,  members  of  the 
Andover  band,  reached  Bombay,  and  while  there  wrote  a  pam- 
phlet, which  should  be  reprinted  during  this  centennial  year, 
entitled,  "  The  Conversion  of  the  World:  an  Appeal  for  Six  Hun- 
dred Millions,"  the  then  supposed  population  of  non-Christian 
lands.  That  first,  faint,  far-off  voice  has  been  caught  up  and 
repeated  by  student  after  student,  until  now  a  sound  like  the 
voice  of  many  waters  is  ringing  round  the  world  the  sublime 
college  cry,  "  The  evangelization  of  the  world  in  this  generation." 

Among  the  readers  of  the  little  pamphlet  was  Dr.  John  Scudder, 
a  physician  in  New  York,  who  discovered  the  pamphlet  on  a  table 
in  a  sick  room  where  he  was  administering  professionally.  Its 
divine  appeal  moved  him  to  a  speedy  decision  to  devote  his  profes- 


THE    MEN    OF   THE    HAYSTACK.  145 

sional  talents  to  the  foreign  missionary  cau.se.  He  was  America's 
first  foreign  medical  missionary. 

The  day  he  sailed,  a  boy  stood  in  the  crowd  which  gathered 
on  Fulton  Wharf  in  New  York  to  bid  Godspeed  to  the  outgoing 
missionaries,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Scudder.  The  sight  of  the  heroic 
couple  with  their  faces  set  toward  the  field  of  their  glorious  life- 
work  kindled  a  fire  in  the  life  of  that  boy,  James  Brainerd  Taylor. 
which  never  died  out,  which  in  some  bright  realm  is  doubtless 
burning  yet,  and  will  burn  after  the  stars  shall  have  burned  out. 
The  inspiration  of  that  hour  led  him  to  turn  away  from  a  promising 
business  career  to  dedicate  his  life  to  the  gospel  ministry.  After 
a  preparatory  course  at  Lawrenceville,  he  entered  Princeton 
College,  and  while  there,  with  the  cooperation  of  Peter  Gulick, 
the  destined  head  of  one  of  America's  foremost  missionary  families, 
he  founded  the  Christian  society  which  still  lives  as  the  Phila- 
delphian  Society,  or  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  of  the 
University.  That  society  has  been  the  center  of  the  Christian 
activities  of  the  college  to  the  present  day. 

In  1876  the  society  united  with  the  international  organization 
of  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  and  in  1877  proposed  and 
effected  the  Intercollegiate  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  original  idea  of  the  intercollegiate  move- 
ment does  not  seem  to  have  embodied  any  provision  whatever  for 
promoting  the  cause  of  foreign  missions.  The  plans  of  the  promoters 
of  the  movement  primarily  contemplated  the  American  student, 
and  secondarily  the  young  men  of  our  cities,  in  whose  evangeliza- 
tion the  students  were  to  be  enlisted  —  a  broad  purpose,  but  not 
the  broadest.  The  narrow  conception  of  the  student  movement 
was,  however,  short-lived.  The  men  of  the  haystack  were  to  be 
reckoned  with.  Their  world-wide  vision  was  to  be  imparted  to 
their  spiritual  descendants,  the  members  of  the  society  founded 
by  Taylor.  Their  voices  were  to  be  heard  from  across  the  century, 
challenging  their  successors  to  take  up  the  world-wide  work  which 
they  had  begun.  It  was  in  a  lecture  room  in  Union  Seminary, 
New  York  City,  that  the  first  secretary  of  the  intercollegiate 
movement  heard  the  story  of  the  haystack  meeting  and  the 
immediate  subsequent  events.  The  feature  of  the  narrative  which 
naturally  arrested  his  attention  was  the  effort  to  make  the 
missionary  movement  intercollegiate.  As  he  mused,  the  fire 
burned.  The  idea  speedily  possessed  him  that  the  time  had  come 
to  resume  the  work  which  the  men  of  the  haystack  had  laid  down, 


146  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

and  call  the  college  world  to  the  greatest  duty  that  ever  faced  it. 
Accordingly  steps  were  taken  to  arrange  for  the  fullest  considera- 
tion of  the  obligations  of  students  to  the  cause  of  foreign  missions 
at  the  forthcoming  conference  of  students  in  Baltimore,  May, 
1879.  Mark  Hopkins  was  consulted  and  was  asked  to  send  a 
strong  Williams  delegate  to  the  Baltimore  Conference  in  order 
that  the  voice  of  Williams  might  be  heard  in  the  revival  of  the 
movement  born  on  the  Williams  campus.  Henry  P.  Perkins  was 
Dr.  Hopkins'  response.  The  Student  Conference  met  amid  inspir- 
ing surroundings.  The  main  convention  was  presided  over  by 
Mr.  Moody,  who  then  first  came  into  touch  with  the  movement 
which  he  was  to  help  make  the  greatest  Christian  movement  of 
the  century.  The  cause  of  foreign  missions  and  the  obligations 
of  the  colleges  to  the  same  were  fully  considered  and  the  Student 
Missionary  Movement  was  born  again. 

For  seven  years  the  missionary  idea  was  vigorously  promoted 
among  the  American  colleges,  with  steadily  growing  results.  The 
first  great  manifestation  of  the  movement  occurred  at  Mt.  Hermon, 
Mass.,  where,  in  1886,  was  held  the  first  of  the  Christian  Student 
Summer  Conferences,  which  are  now  planted  throughout  the  world, 
and  it  should  be  noted  that  the  conference  was  called  largely  for 
the  purpose  of  offering  ample  opportunity  for  the  consideration  of 
the  claims  of  foreign  missions  upon  the  college  world.  The  mighty 
impulse  which  the  month  of  Bible  study  at  Mt.  Hermon  gave  to 
the  missionary  program  of  the  intercollegiate  movement  lifted  it 
upon  a  plane  of  such  prominence  as  to  give  the  impression  that  the 
missionary  department  was  the  movement  itself.  While  the  name 
of  the  movement  was  changed  from  the  Foreign  Missionary  Depart- 
ment of  the  Intercollegiate  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
to  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement  for  Foreign  Missions,  it  has 
continued  to  the  present  time  as  a  department  of  the  one  all- 
embracing  student  movement,  and  as  such  has  realized  its  greatest 
usefulness. 

From  that  time  the  world-wide  extension  of  the  intercollegiate 
movement  proceeded  with  mighty  strides.  It  had  already  become 
international  by  embracing  the  University  of  Toronto,  where  the 
Canadian  contingent  started.  It  now  extends  from  Prince 
Edward  Island  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  had  already  crossed 
the  Atlantic  and  entered  the  University  of  Berlin.  The  German 
students  have  held  Christian  conferences  since  1890.  It  was 
speedily    inaugurated    in    Scandinavia    and    Great   Britain    and 


THE    MEN    OF   THE    HAYSTACK. 


147 


passed  rapidly  into  France,  Holland,  Switzerland,  and  Italy. 
The  students  of  Asia  and  of  South  Africa  and  of  Australia  rapidly 
enlisted  and  were  finally  federated,  in  1895,  in  a  World's  Student 
Christian  Federation,  whose  first  conference  was  held  in  an  old 
castle  in  Sweden  which  Gustavus  Vasa  had  built  over  three  cen- 
turies before.  For  the  first  time  in  history  the  students  of  the 
world  have  been  enrolled  and  united  in  a  movement  one  of  whose 
main  purposes  is  the  evangelization  of  the  world  in  this  generation. 

The  first  American  meeting  of  the  world's  federation  was  held 
at  Williamstown  in  the  summer  of  1897.  Students  were  present 
from  thirteen  nations  and  from  five  continents.  Meetings  were 
held  day  after  day  in  the  parlors  of  "  The  Greylock,"  with  the 
map  of  the  world  spread  before  the  delegates,  and  plans  were  dis- 
cussed for  making  the  colleges  in  all  lands  centers  of  evangelization. 

One  evening  the  delegates  gathered  in  Mission  Park  around  the 
shaft  of  Berkshire  marble  which  marks  the  spot  where  the  hay- 
stack stood.  It  is  significant  that  as  many  continents  were  repre- 
sented there  as  the  number  of  men  who  made  that  place  sacred  by 
the  prayer  meeting  held  there  ninety-one  years  before.  The 
story  of  that  meeting  was  told  and  the  series  of  incidents  recounted 
which  connected  the  men  who  gathered  there  in  1806  with  the 
men  who  assembled  there  in  1897:  the  effort  to  extend  the  move- 
ment to  other  colleges,  the  formation  of  the  Andover  Band,  the 
raising  up  of  Gordon  Hall  and  his  associate,  Samuel  Newell,  who 
in  Bombay  wrote  the  pamphlet  which  led  Scudder  to  Asia  as  a 
medical  missionary,  the  scene  on  Fulton  Wharf,  the  impression 
made  on  James  Brainerd  Taylor,  the  founding  of  the  Philadelphian 
Society,  the  union  of  that  society  with  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  fifty  years  later,  the  organization  by  that  society  of 
the  Intercollegiate  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  the  organi- 
zation of  the  missionary  department  which  broadened  out  into 
the  Student  Volunteer  Movement  for  Foreign  Missions,  and  the 
expansion  of  the  movement  to  the  colleges  of  five  continents. 
After  completing  the  narrative,  the  speaker  asked  the  delegates 
to  repeat  in  their  various  languages  the  words  of  Mills,  "  We  can 
do  it  if  we  will."  The  students  all  together  rang  out  the  college 
cry  until  the  old  Berkshire  Hills  sent  it  back  in  echoes,  "  We  can 
do  it  if  we  will."  The  German  students  cried,  "  Wir  konnen  wenn 
wir  wollen."  The  French  and  Swiss  repeated  it,  also  the  dele- 
gate from  South  Africa  in  Cape  Dutch.  The  delegate  from  Nor- 
way, the  Old  Viking  as  he  was  called,  uttered  in  his  stentorian 


148  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

tones  that  matchless  war-cry,  and  then  said  in  his  broken  English, 
"  To  vill  is  to  can."  The  delegates  from  India  repeated  it  in 
Tamil  and  Marathi,  and  the  Chinese  in  his  rich  Mandarin,  followed 
by  the  Japanese  in  his  musical  mother  tongue,  and  it  is  worthy  of 
note  that  the  chairman  of  that  Federation  Conference  at  Williams- 
town  was  a  Japanese,  probably  the  first  occasion  when  a  world's 
meeting  was  presided  over  by  a  Japanese  and  that  meeting  a 
Christian  gathering  held  within  fifty  years  of  the  first  presentation 
of  the  Protestant  gospel  to  the  Sunrise  Kingdom! 

The  speaker  then  called  on  the  delegates  from  the  different 
nations  to  indicate  the  most  suitable  place  in  their  respective 
countries  for  a  Federation  Conference.  The  British  delegate 
replied  Iona,  where  Columba  lived  and  sent  the  gospel  back  into 
Ireland  and  on  into  Scotland.  The  Swiss  replied  Geneva,  where 
John  Calvin  preached  the  gospel  of  liberty.  The  Germans  cried 
the  Wartburg,  where  Luther  gave  the  Bible  to  his  people  in  their 
mother  tongue.  The  Japanese  replied  Kumamoto,  on  whose 
flowery  hilltop  a  band  of  Japanese  students  dedicated  their  lives 
to  Christ  and  the  conversion  of  their  countrymen,  and  set  in  opera- 
tion events  which  resulted  in  building  up  one  of  the  foremost 
Christian  universities  in  Asia,  the  Doshisha.  The  delegates  from 
India  replied  Serampore,  where  William  Carey  worked  and  Henry 
Martyn  prayed  in  the  pagoda  by  the  Ganges.  And  then  the 
students  grasped  hands  and  rang  out  again  the  college  cry,  "  We 
can  do  it  if  we  will,"  whereupon  the  German  delegates  began 
singing  "  Ein'  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott,"  and  again  the  delegates 
cried  as  the  twilight  deepened  and  the  time  for  separation  had 
come,  "  We  can  do  it  if  we  will."  No  one  who  saw  the  fire  in  the 
eyes  of  those  college  student  leaders  and  the  blood  in  their  faces, 
and  felt  the  thrill  that  ran  round  that  circle  of  dauntless  hearts 
can  doubt  that  they  can  do  it  and  will  do  it,  and  that  before 
another  century  shall  have  passed  a  meeting  will  be  held  at  this 
historic  spot,  to  celebrate  the  completion  of  the  glorious  work  to 
which  those  pioneers  of  the  greatest  Christian  movement  of  the 
century,  if  not  the  greatest  of  the  Christian  era,  dedicated  their 
lives. 


WEDNESDAY    EVENING    SESSIONS.  149 


WEDNESDAY  EVENING  SESSIONS. 

On  Wednesday  evening  the  meetings  were  held  in  sections, 
filling  five  churches  with  good  congregations. 

Those  who  remained  at  Williamstown  gathered  in  the  Congre- 
gational church.  After  the  address  by  Rev.  Nehemiah  Boynton, 
D.D.,  a  number  of  converts  and  missionaries  were  introduced  by 
Secretary  Harry  W.  Hicks,  who  presided.  As  the  three  native 
Christians  who  spoke  had  made  addresses  at  the  afternoon  session, 
their  evening  greetings  are  not  here  reprinted.  We  cannot  print 
in  this  volume  the  words  of  Dr.  Boynton,  as  he  had  no  manu- 
script and  they  were  not  reported  in  shorthand.  For  like  reasons 
the  address  of  Dr.  Edwin  St.  John  Ward,  who  is  under  appoint- 
ment to  Diabekir,  Eastern  Turkey,  is  omitted. 

At  North  Adams  the  meeting  in  the  Methodist  church  (which 
was  the  official  evening  service  of  the  Board)  was  led  by  President 
Capen.  Rev.  Washington  Gladden,  D.D.,  who  was  formerly  a 
pastor  in  North  Adams,  offered  the  opening  prayer  at  this  service. 
Telegrams  were  read  at  this  session  from  the  Chicago  Association 
of  Congregational  Churches  and  also  from  the  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  of  the  Reformed  Church,  and  an  address  from  the  Arme- 
nian Evangelical  Alliance  of  America  was  presented.  This  will 
be  found  in  the  following  pages  after  the  address  by  President 
King.  President  King,  of  Oberlin,  and  Dr.  Henry  E.  Cobb  were 
the  principal  speakers. 

The  young  people  gathered  in  the  Baptist  Church  and  were  led 
by  Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D.  They  listened  to  two  strong 
addresses  from  Mr.  John  R.  Mott  and  Prof.  Harlan  P.  Beach. 
At  the  Congregational  church,  President  Day,  of  Andover  Semi- 
nary, was  in  the  chair  and  delivered  the  first  address.  He  was 
followed  by  Rev.  T.  C.  Richards,  the  biographer  of  Mills. 

The  meeting  at  Adams  was  in  the  Congregational  church,  led 
by  the  pastor,  Rev.  J.  Spencer  Voorhees.  Among  the  speakers 
were  Rev.  Enoch  F.  Bell,  a  former  missionary  in  Japan;  Rev. 
Brownell  Gage,  Yale  Missionary  in  China;  Mr.  Kulasinghe,  Mr. 
Fei  Chi  Hao,  Rev.  Robert  Ernest  Hume,  and  Mr.  William  Staub. 

These  five  simultaneous  gatherings,  all  well  attended,  testified 
to  the  general  interest  felt  in  these  centennial  meetings  and  their 
widely  diffused  influence. 


150  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

THE  HOSPITAL  IN  CESAREA. 
Rev.  William  S.  Dodd,  M.D.,  of  Western  Turkey. 

The  chronology  of  the  medical  work  in  Talas,  past,  present,  and 
future,  is  that  it  began  as  house-to-house  practice  in  1886.  In 
1892  the  dispensary  was  built,  with  an  operating  room  and  space 
for  a  dozen  patients  to  spread  their  own  beds,  mostly  dirty  and 
often  worse.  In  1897  we  put  seven  beds  into  our  small  space  and 
managed  it  in  semi-hospital  style,  with  a  trained  nurse.  In  1900 
the  present  fine  building  was  erected,  where  there  are  forty  beds, 
and  we  hope  before  long  to  make  an  addition  and  increase  the 
capacity  to  sixty  beds.  This  last  is  the  future  part  of  the 
chronology. 

The  growth  of  this  work  has  been  steady  and  substantial. 
There  is  no  sudden  popularity  for  the  missionary  physician  enter- 
ing on  his  work.  He  must  win  his  way  there  as  everywhere  else; 
he  must  prove  his  fitness,  and  he  must  prove  it  in  the  face  of  oppo- 
sition, sometimes  bitter  and  malignant.  There  will  be  disap- 
pointed patients  who  will  make  his  heart  sick.  There  will  be 
religious  opponents,  glad  to  catch  at  any  opportunity  to  justify 
their  hostility.  Still  more  there  are  jealous  native  physicians  who 
use  every  means  to  overthrow  influence.  They  said  of  me  when  I 
first  went  that  I  was  only  a  boy  who  had  come  to  finish  my  medical 
education  among  them.  Every  error,  and  everything  that  can  be 
construed  into  an  error,  is  magnified  to  the  people  in  order  to 
undermine  their  confidence  in  us.  Summoned  to  court  on  a 
charge  of  homicide,  because  I  failed  to  save  a  man  who  had  been 
stabbed  in  the  abdomen  and  left  by  them  to  die  of  internal 
hemorrhage;  when  meeting  with  a  company  of  native  physicians 
for  consultation,  treated  with  sneering  remarks  about  my  pre- 
tending to  do  religious  work  for  a  large  salary  ("  Give  me  your 
salary  and  I'll  be  a  missionary  too,  and  preach  the  gospel  as  well 
as  you,"  was  said  to  me  by  a  notoriously  evil  doctor);  or  being 
pressed  by  a  medical  official  in  a  covert  yet  understood  manner 
for  a  bribe  to  prevent  his  making  a  report  to  Constantinople  with 
a  view  to  having  the  hospital  closed,  —  such  are  some  of  the 
fraternal  amenities  that  the  native  medical  "  fraternity  "  shower 
upon  us. 

And  yet  I  would  not  have  it  thought  that  their  animosity  is 


THE    HOSPITAL   IN   CESAREA.  151 

directed  exclusively  against  us;  they  do  the  same  thing  among 
themselves  when  they  have  opportunity;  but  they  are  roused 
to  opposition  in  proportion  as  they  see  another  more  successful 
than  themselves.  The  words  of  the  Jews  in  regard  to  the  apostles 
might  be  put  in  their  mouths,  "  That  a  notable  work  hath  been 
wrought  by  them  we  cannot  deny,  but  that  it  spread  no  further 
among  the  people  let  us  threaten  them." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  foreigner  has  some  advantages.  By 
the  fact  of  his  being  a  foreigner  he  is  supposed  to  be  better  edu- 
cated, he  has  a  prestige  from  his  power  of  appealing  in  government 
matters  to  his  consul  or  ambassador.  But  these  are  comparatively 
unimportant.  Upon  the  foundation  of  the  general  reputation  of 
the  American  missionary  he  must  build  the  reputation  of  his  own 
professional  ability,  and  still  more  of  his  Christian  integrity,  integ- 
rity in  private  life  and  in  the  practice  of  his  profession.  "  I  have 
come  to  you  because  I  know  you  will  tell  me  the  truth,"  is  what 
we  hear  over  and  over  again  from  our  patients,  and  it  expresses 
their  idea  of  our  professional  honesty.  "  If  I  am  going  to  die,  I 
want  to  die  by  your  hands  "  expresses  their  trust  in  our  profes- 
sional ability. 

In  1887,  the  first  year  of  my  practice  in  Turkey,  I  had,  all  told, 
not  over  500  patients,  and  did  perhaps  20  operations.  Now  our 
patients  number  about  8,000  a  year  and  the  operations  560.  In 
1898,  when  we  began  to  take  in-patients,  there  were  82.  Last  year, 
in  the  large  new  hospital  building,  we  had  401.  It  is  this  large 
amount  of  hospital  work  that  has  necessarily  kept  down  the 
number  of  our  out-patients  for  lack  of  time  to  attend  to  them. 

In  our  money  relations  with  the  people  our  experience  differs 
much  from  what  I  read  of  the  experience  of  missionary  physicians 
in  some  other  lands.  I  have  read  that  in  one  of  the  hospitals  in 
Madura  no  fees  are  asked,  and  not  only  is  the  hospital  supported 
by  the  freewill  offerings  of  grateful  patients,  but  the  building  was 
erected  largely  by  gifts  from  native  sources.  No  such  plan  can  be 
carried  out  with  us.  Whether  the  actual  poverty  is  greater  in 
Turkey  than  in  India,  I  cannot  say.  Whether  the  feeling  of 
poverty  is  greater  where  it  is  due  to  governmental  conditions,  as 
in  Turkey,  than  where  it  is  due  to  natural  or  inherited  conditions, 
I  cannot  say.  Perhaps  it  is  simply  the  innate  meanness  of  the 
people.  But  certain  it  is  in  our  region,  and  I  think  it  is  true  for 
all  the  Turkish  empire,  that  our  income  would  be  almost  nothing 
if  it  were  left  to  be  given  in  this  way.     We  charge  regular  fees  for 


152  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

regular  services  whenever  we  think  the  people  able  to  pay  it.  We 
ask  payment  for  operations  and  for  hospital  treatment,  and  we 
require  it  in  advance.  It  is  very  seldom  that  we  find  any  one  who 
considers  such  requirement  as  anything  out  of  the  way  or  insulting 
to  themselves.  They  know  too  well  the  universal  conditions  of 
the  country,  the  nature  of  the  people,  and  what  they  would  them- 
selves do  in  similar  circumstances.  If  objections  are  made  to  us 
on  the  score  of  its  being  derogatory  to  them,  and  that  we  are  insult- 
ing them  by  doubting  their  word,  this  too  often  only  deepens  our 
distrust,  and  makes  us  feel  that  this  is  a  case  where  we  should  hold 
to  our  rule  more  rigidly.  Ability  to  deceive  is  a  large  part  of  their 
capital.  To  persuade  the  doctor  by  a  pitiful  tale  is  cleverness. 
Every  piaster  thus  saved  is  clear  gain.  To  battle  with  this  is  the 
most  distasteful  part  of  the  physician's  duty.  A  villager  came  to 
me  from  a  region  which  I  knew  to  be  not  poor.  I  asked  him  forty 
dollars  for  a  serious  operation  and  board  and  expenses  in  the 
hospital  for  the  necessary  time.  He  begged,  he  was  poor,  he  had  a 
large  family,  his  only  yoke  of  oxen  had  been  seized  for  taxes,  he 
had  come  three  days'  journey  on  foot  because  he  could  not  hire  a 
donkey,  he  had  absolutely  nothing,  but  since  he  was  ashamed  to 
come  to  the  doctor  with  nothing,  he  had  borrowed  six  dollars  at 
five  per  cent,  a  month  interest,  he  would  give  me  that.  In  spite 
of  the  long  practice  in  disbelief,  I  finally  accepted  him  for  that. 
He  said  he  would  go  to  the  khan  to  get  his  money  which  was 
sewed  up  in  his  donkey's  saddle.  (He  had  said  before  that  he 
had  no  donkey.)  My  shrewd  office  boy  suspected  him  and  fol- 
lowed him  secretly;  saw  him  go,  not  to  the  khan  but  around  the 
corner  into  a  field,  undo  his  girdle  and  leather  belt,  take  out  twelve 
gold  pieces  worth  about  fifty  dollars,  keep  one  to  give  me  with 
some  silver  change,  and  put  the  rest  securely  back  in  hiding. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  .are  cases  of  gratitude.  There  was  a 
poor  woman,  the  support  of  her  family,  which  included  a  husband 
and  several  children,  who  had  been  miserable  for  several  years 
from  chronic  appendicitis.  She  was  taken  free  for  operation  and 
treatment,  and  went  home  cured.  When  I  called  on  her  some  time 
afterward,  sitting  on  the  floor,  I  asked  her  how  she  was.  The 
tears  came  to  her  eyes  as  she  expressed  her  gratitude.  Then  going 
to  a  box  in  the  corner  of  the  room  she  dug  down  to  the  bottom  of 
the  old  ragged  clothing  there,  took  out  a  piece  of  ragged  skirt, 
untied  a  knot  in  it,  and  brought  me,  wrapped  up  in  a  paper  —  a 
gold  piece!     "  That  I  had  saved  up  for  my  funeral,"  she  said,  "  so 


THE    HOSPITAL    IN    CESAR E A.  153 

thai  my  children  should  not  be  burdened  to  bury  me.  Now  I 
shall  not  need  it,  and  I  want  it  to  go  to  the  hospital."  You,  who 
meet  with  such  cases  often,  can  hardly  appreciate  how  this  instance 
of  what  was  in  spirit  a  true  widow's  mite,  though  much  more  in 
intrinsic  value,  went  to  our  hearts.  And  every  year  since,  she  has 
made  a  contribution  of  fifty  cents  to  the  hospital. 

But  I  want  you  to  understand  another  advance  that  has  been 
made  in  hospital  work.  It  is  not  merely  that  the  people  have 
learned  to  trust  us,  put  themselves  in  our  hands  with  a  childlike 
faith  that  makes  us  almost  shrink  from  the  responsibility,  beg  for 
a  capital  operation  for  a  trivial  ache  because  they  have  heard 
that  we  can  cut  out  anything  and  everything  from  the  body,  and 
that  so  the  number  of  patients  has  grown;  it  is  not  only  that 
they  are  learning  what  comfort  comes  from  perfect  cleanliness,  not 
only  that  many  a  patient  longs  to  stay  on  in  the  hospital  after 
being  cured,  not  only  that  they  see  equal  care  for  rich  and  poor, 
and  also  learn  how  honorable  it  is  to  serve  when  the  motive  is 
noble, —  the  perfect  management  of  the  hospital  by  the  super- 
intendent, the  spirit  of  the  nurses,  teaches  these  things. 

But  above  all,  the  knowledge  of  the  hospital  as  a  "  House  of 
God  "  has  spread  among  the  people.  "  They  pray  for  the  patients 
there  instead  of  cursing  them,"  they  say.  "  It  is  more  your 
prayers  than  your  skill  that  gives  you  success,"  a  Moslem  said 
to  us.  "  I  am  afraid  of  the  prayers  there,"  a  hardened  criminal 
said.  A  mother  brought  her  son,  a  young  man,  for  treatment, 
and  sought  a  word  with  me  privately  beforehand.  "  Whatever 
is  the  matter  with  him,"  she  said,  "  please  tell  him  anyway  that 
he  needs  a  month's  treatment  in  the  hospital,  because  I  know 
you  will  make  him  good  here.  He  is  a  bad  boy,  I  cannot  do 
anything  with  him,  and  that  is  the  reason  I  am  bringing  him  here." 
It  was  an  Armenian  teacher,  an  old  man,  who,  when  he  went  home, 
said,  "  I  have  spent  my  life  in  teaching,  I  have  read  the  Bible 
much  and  talked  about  it  and  explained  it  to  my  people.  I  have 
thought  that  I  was  a  good  man  and  serving  God.  But  I  see  now 
it  was  all  outside.     I  have  found  Jesus  here." 

A  place  where  the  love  of  Christ  rules,  although  we  realize  how 
imperfectly  that  motive  bears  sway,  has  an  atmosphere  that  every 
patient  must  breathe.  The  Bible  is  everywhere,  in  the  wards 
and  in  the  rooms;  every  nurse  is  judged  not  only  by  fitness  for 
nursing,  but  for  personal  spiritual  work.  It  is  not  upon  any  one 
thing  that  we  can  lay  our  finger  and  say,  "  By  that  means  or 


154  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

through  that  person  this  patient  was  influenced,"  but  by  the  spirit 
of  the  place.  And  this  is  a  composite,  made  up  by  the  spirit  with 
which  he  is  received  and  welcomed  to  the  hospital;  the  labor 
bestowed  on  him  by  the  physicians,  by  the  ladies  in  the  hospital 
and  the  ladies  of  our  families,  and  by  the  native  nurses;  by  the 
cleanliness  and  order  and  good  food;  by  the  morning  and  evening 
prayers  in  the  wards;  the  Bible  at  the  bedside  for  themselves  to 
read;  the  sitting  down  by  them  not  merely  to  inquire  of  their 
bodily  health,  but  for  seeking  their  higher  welfare;  the  Sabbath 
services;  the  teaching  to  read;  the  ministrations  of  the  children  of 
our  families  with  picture  cards  and  flowers,  —  I  never  saw  a 
patient  yet,  be  he  Armenian,  Greek,  or  Moslem,  whose  soul  was 
not  affected  by  this  atmosphere.  And  when  they  have  come  to 
realize,  as  so  many  do  sooner  or  later,  that  nothing  but  the  love 
of  Christ  can  create  this  atmosphere,  then  we  feel  that  we  have 
succeeded  in  preaching  Christ  to  those  who  would  never  have 
heard  or  listened  otherwise,  and  in  a  way  that  the  Master  himself 
specially  blessed. 

The  hospital  everywhere  stands  for  life  in  constant  battle  with 
death.  The  missionary  hospital  stands  for  life,  both  temporal 
and  eternal,  in  battle  with  death,  both  physical  and  spiritual. 


THE    AMERICAN    COLLEGE,    MADURA.  155 


THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE,   MADURA,   AND  THE  CON- 
QUEST OF  AN  EMPIRE. 

Pres.  William  M.  Zumbro,  of  Pasumalai  College,  Madura. 

This  year  thousands  of  young  men  and  women  will  study  that 
book  prepared  under  the  auspicies  of  the  Young  People's  Mission- 
ary Movement,  "  The  Christian  Conquest  of  India,"  by  Bishop 
Thoburn. 

In  the  past  there  have  been  many  conquests  of  India,  and  the 
motives  back  of  them  have  been  ambition,  plunder,  political  and 
commercial  supremacy.  What  is  the  motive  that  drives  the 
Christian  army  on  to  conquest?  One  word  will  express  it, — 
service.     The  Christian  host  goes  forth  to  win  India  by  serving  it. 

I  wish  today  to  speak  of  our  college  as  a  strategic  center,  where 
we  are  equipping  and  sending  out  various  columns  to  join  the 
army  moving  forward  to  this  Christian  conquest  of  India.  We 
take  as  the  fundamental  principle  in  the  charter  of  our  college  this 
proposition:  Wherever  there  is  a  real  human  need  there  is  a 
legitimate  call  to  Christian  service.  Our  warrant  for  this  is  the 
example  and  the  command  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Needs  of  India. 

Many  times  during  the  past  year  I  have  been  asked  by  friends 
in  America,  "  What  need  is  there  for  service  in  India?  "  "  India," 
say  they,  "  is  a  land  of  ancient  civilization,  of  great  religions,  of 
vast  population;  what  need  has  she  that  is  not  already  supplied?  " 
It  is  a  fair  question.  If  there  is  no  need,  then  there  is  no  call  to 
service,  the  idea  of  a  Christian  conquest  of  India  becomes  mean- 
ingless, the  enterprise  should  be  abandoned,  our  college  closed. 

Do  you  ask, "  What  need  is  there  in  India?  "  There  is  need 
for  food.  One  half  of  the  agricultural  population  never  know 
what  it  is  to  have  their  hunger  fully  satisfied,"  says  Sir  Charles 
Elliot.  There  is  need  for  industrial  training.  Industrially,  India 
is  five  hundred  years  behind  the  rest  of  the  world.  Her  industries 
are  all  the  old  hand  industries;  she  has  never  made  the  transition 
to  the  machine.  Thousands  of  the  artisan  class  are  being  thrown 
out  of  employment,  because  they  are  no  longer  able  to  compete  with 
their  hand-made  goods  in  the  world  market  todaj^. 


156  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

Sociologists  tell  us  that  the  contests  between  nations  in  the 
future  are  to  be  decided,  not  on  the  field  of  battle,  but  in  the 
workshop  and  the  factory;  the  leaders  of  these  contests  are  to  be 
trained,  not  at  West  Point  or  Sandhurst,  but  in  trade  schools  and 
technical  institutes.  If  this  is  so,  and  if  the  hunger  of  India  is 
ever  to  be  satisfied,  then  the  artisans  of  India  must  be  trained  to 
meet,  by  their  own  skill,  the  skill  of  other  nations.  We  hope  to 
give  something  of  this  training  in  the  department  of  industries 
which  we  are  just  starting. 

Others  have  said  to  me  during  the  year,  "  What  reason  have 
you  to  think  that  you  are  serving  India  by  your  educational  work? 
India  is  a  land  of  hoary  civilization,  of  a  vast  literature;  surely 
there  is  no  need  for  your  trying  to  educate  the  people  of  India." 
No  need?  See  that  boy,  Kerupusawmy,  there,  clothed  with  a 
string  tied  around  his  loins.  He  cannot  read.  Ninety  out  of 
every  hundred  boys  and  men  in  India  are  in  the  same  fix. 

Is  there  need  for  schools?  The  missionaries  of  the  Madura 
Mission  believe  that  there  is  need,  and  so  they  have  established 
more  than  two  hundred  village  schools,  which  are  scattered  through- 
out the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Madura  country  to  help  meet 
this  need.  And  in  the  normal  department  of  our  college  we  are 
training  from  year  to  year  the  young  men  who  are  to  go  out  as 
teachers  in  these  schools.  More  than  six  hundred  young  men  have 
been  trained  in  our  normal  school  and  have  gone  out  all  over 
South  India.  And  ever  while  we  train  them  we  try  to  keep 
before  them  that  fundamental  principle  of  our  college  charter,  — 
service. 

Another  need  of  India  is  for  wholesome  literature,  and  this 
we  are  trying  to  supply  through  our  press  at  Pasumalai,  from 
which  every  year  go  out  tens  of  thousands  of  pages,  translations 
from  the  best  books  of  European  and  American  writers,  together 
with  original  publications  and  the  two  newspapers  published 
there. 

But,  says  another,  "  India  is  under  the  British  government,  at 
least  there  is  no  governmental  need  that  is  not  being  adequately 
met."  It  is  true  that  the  British  government  controls  India,  and 
I  think  there  is  no  country  in  the  world  where  the  chief  officials 
have  a  higher  average  intelligence,  ability,  and  integrity  of  pur- 
pose than  the  English  official  in  India.  But  the  English  official 
is  a  mere  handful  in  numbers  when  compared  with  the  native 
official. 


the  american  college,  madura.  157 

Conditions  in  India. 

One  of  the  most  insistent  needs  in  all  lands  today  is  for  men  in 
government  service  who  have  integrity  of  purpose  and  righteous- 
ness of  character.  The  foundation  of  character  is  in  religion. 
What  is  the  situation  in  India?  The  government  colleges,  being 
under  the  pledge  of  religious  neutrality,  make  no  attempt  to 
include  religious  teaching  in  their  curriculum.  Most  colleges 
under  native  control  do  little  to  teach  the  doctrines  of  Hinduism, 
and  such  doctrines  when  taught  have  little  compelling  force  today 
over  the  college  student.  Said  a  Brahman  official  the  other  day 
to  one  of  our  missionaries,  "  Young  men  who  have  been  educated 
in  government  schools  come  out  atheists  and  are  unreliable  in 
character.  It  is  the  missionaries  who  have  taught  us  that  there 
is  one  God,  and  the  young  men  whom  they  educate  come  from  the 
schools  with  faith  in  God  and  satisfactory  stability  of  character." 
A  number  of  the  young  men  trained  in  our  college  have  gone  into 
government  service,  have  risen  to  good  positions,  and  have  become 
the  trusted  assistants  of  the  English  officials. 

Others  have  said  to  me,  "  You  are  making  the  greatest  mistake 
of  all  by  thinking  that  you  are  serving  India  by  teaching  another 
religion.  India  is  the  home  of  great  religious  systems, —  the  land 
of  the  Vedas  and  the  Upanishads,  the  land  of  the  Mahabarata 
and  the  Ramayana,  the  birthplace  of  Buddha,  and  the  home  of 
Rishis, —  why  need  we  send  missionaries  to  India  to  preach  another 
religion?  "  We  grant  that  there  is  truth  in  Hinduism;  no  one 
denies  that  today.  But  the  crucial  test  of  any  religion  is  not  its 
philosophical  doctrine,  but  its  methods  of  dealing  with  sin  in 
men's  lives.  Philosophies  may  change,  theologies  may  come  and 
go,  but  sin  ever  remains  the  supreme  curse  of  the  world.  No 
need  for  religious  teaching  in  India?  Go  within  that  great  temple 
of  Menakshi  in  Madura,  in  underneath  the  great  gopura,  on 
through  the  long  corridor,  on  through  the  great  double  brass  door- 
way, till  you  stand  at  last  in  the  open  court  at  the  "  Swarna- 
pushpa-karini,"  or  "  golden  lily  tank."  Observe  that  old  man 
with  nothing  but  a  cloth  tied  around  his  waist,  his  forehead 
smeared  with  sacred  ashes,  the  sacred  thread  thrown  over  his 
shoulder,  emblem  of  the  "  twice-born."  See  him  as  he  goes 
slowly  down  the  stone  steps  to  the  water.  See  him  take  off  the 
cloth  that  he  is  wearing  and  wash  it,  and  as  he  goes  a  little  further 
bathe  his  body  in  the  water.     Yet  again   note   how,  before    he 


158  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

comes  back  up  the  steps  and  goes  on  to  the  shrine  of  the  goddess, 
he  takes  up  some  of  the  sacred  water  in  his  hand  and  drinks  it, 
that  he  may  not  only  be  clean  without,  but  purified  from  sin 
within  as  well.  Would  you  recommend  that  as  a  satisfactory 
cleansing  for  the  sinners  of  America? 

One  of  the  most  insistent  remarks  that  I  have  met  during  the 
year  is  this:  "  There  is  so  much  need  in  America,  the  wickedness 
is  so  great  here,  that  I  cannot  help  in  India."  In  America  the  poor 
are  sometimes  robbed  by  the  rich,  but  on  the  other  hand  there  are 
those  who  plead  the  cause  of  the  poor  and  the  oppressed,  and  their 
voice  is  becoming  even  louder  and  more  insistent.  But  in  India, 
the  low-caste  man,  absolutely  refused  admittance  to  the  temples 
where  the  high-caste  man  worships,  robbed,  plundered,  and 
oppressed  in  many  ways,  spurned  and  despised,  his  very  shadow 
a  pollution,  has  no  one  to  lift  up  a  voice  on  his  behalf  in  all  the 
pale  of  Hinduism.  In  America  the  social  evil  and  easy  divorce  are 
all  too  common,  but  there  are  here  those  who  in  the  name  of 
Jehovah,  God  of  righteousness,  cry  out  against  these  things,  and 
there  are  some  doors  that  are  shut  in  the  face  of  the  libertine.  But 
in  India  the  courtesan,  the  Nautch  girl,  has  a  recognized  and 
honored  place  in  all  their  great  temples,  and  is  a  welcome  guest 
in  the  homes  of  the  rich.  They  are  dedicated  to  the  service  of 
the  gods  as  little  girls,  and  intercourse  with  these  temple  girls  is 
held  to  be  an  act  of  devotion  to  the  god  to  whom  they  are  theoret- 
ically married.  The  cup  of  iniquity  of  the  Hindu  priesthood  is 
full,  and  there  is  no  one  to  condemn. 

Others  have  said  to  me:  "  At  least  the  people  of  India  are 
fairly  well  satisfied  with  their  religion;  why  force  them  to  accept 
another  which  they  do  not  want?  "  In  the  first  place,  the  assump- 
tion that  the  people  of  India  are  being  forced  to  accept  a  religion 
that  they  do  not  want  is  on  the  face  of  it  absurd.  In  the  second 
place,  I  am  prepared  to  say,  after  eleven  years'  experience  in  India, 
that  there  are  many,  both  men  and  women,  who  in  their  hearts 
desire  to  become  open  followers  of  Christ,  who  on  account  of  the 
great  opposition  which  they  would  meet  on  account  of  the  caste 
system  have  not  the  courage  to  do  so.  Said  a  Brahman  to  one  of 
our  Madura  missionaries  recently:  "  I  am  one  of  many  who  see  in 
the  work  of  mission  education  an  extreme  good  to  India.  There 
are  many  Brahmans  who  are  baptized  in  heart.  Christian  educa- 
tion is  working  mighty  changes  in  the  character  and  life  of  the 
Hindu  community."     There  is  a  strange,  deep  fascination  which 


THE    AMERICAN   COLLEGE,    MADURA.  159 

the  person  of  Christ  has  for  the  Indian  youth,  when  he  is  faithfully 
and  lovingly  presented  to  him.  Said  a  Hindu  student  recently  to 
the  president  of  a  mission  college  in  India:  "  Our  life  in  the  college 
may  not  lead  to  our  becoming  Christians,  but  no  student  ever  goes 
from  here  who  would  dare  speak  anything  against  Christ,  or  who 
can  have  anything  but  a  deep  reverence  for  him." 

No  need  for  religious  teaching  in  India?  The  American  mis- 
sionaries-believe that  there  is  need,  and  so  they  have  preached  the 
gospel  and  they  have  trained  others  to  preach  the  gospel,  and  the 
people  have  heard  and  accepted  until  there  is  now  in  our  mission 
a  Christian  community  of  more  than  nineteen  thousand,  with 
twenty-six  self-supporting  churches  with  Indian  Christian  pastors 
over  them,  and  more  than  three  hundred  and  fifty  village  congre- 
gations depending  on  the  faithful  ministry  of  catechist  or  school 
teacher  for  their  instruction  in  the  Word  of  Life,  and  for  their  exam- 
ple in  Christian  living.  The  pastors  of  these  churches  and  most 
of  the  catechists  for  the  village  congregations  have  been  trained 
in  our  college  and  theological  seminary  and  have  gone  out,  more 
than  a  thousand  of  them  altogether,  to  lead  the  Christian  church  in 
its  advance  to  the  conquest  of  India. 

Do  you  see,  then,  how  great  and  how  manifold  is  the  service 
which  the  Christian  Church  is  called  to  render  in  this  ancient  land 
of  India?  Some  of  us  have  heard  the  call  to  this  service  and  have 
gone  out  to  give  our  lives  to  it  as  being  all  that  we  have  to  give. 
It  is  but  little  that  we  can  do,  and  we  stand  in  awe  in  presence  of 
the  mighty  task  which  we  have  undertaken,  and  wTe  are  made 
humble  by  our  own  weakness  and  inefficiency,  but  we  look  up  to 
Him  whose  is  the  might  and  the  power.  Not  all  of  you  can  go  to 
India.  But  this  does  not  by  any  means  prevent  your  being  able 
to  join  in  this  service,  and  that,  too,  in  a  very  important  way.  And, 
first,  by  prayer  and  sympathy.  Theologies  may  change,  but  the 
promises  of  God  still  hold  good.  Second,  if  you  cannot  go  your- 
self, you  may  supply  the  money  which  is  needed,  and  which  will 
make  the  service  of  those  of  us  who  are  in  the  field  many  times 
more  effective. 


160  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  IN  TURKEY. 

Rev.  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer  Trowbridge, 
Formerly  Assistant  Pastor  to  Rev.  S.  Parke s  Cadman,  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.,  now  under  appointment  of  the  American  Board  to  go 
to  Aintab,  Turkey. 

It  is  not  fair  to  use  the  phrase,  "  the  unspeakable  Turk." 
The  people  are  not  unspeakable;  they  are  capable  and  worthy. 
I  have  heard  educated  Americans  exclaim,  "  Sweep  the  unspeak- 
able Turks  from  the  face  of  the  earth!  "  That  is  a  most  brutal  and 
inhuman  thought.  It  simply  shows  how  the  instincts  of  lynch 
law  are  not  yet  conquered  in  many  hearts.  Besides,  there  are 
twenty  million  Turks,  and  how  could  you  sweep  them  from  the 
face  of  the  earth?  You  can  drive  a  people  from  one  country  into 
another,  but  how  could  you  extirpate  a  great  and  growing  nation? 
It  is  as  foolish  as  it  is  wrong  to  talk  of  such  a  thing.  But  you 
can  redeem  the  Turkish  nation  from  the  bondage  of  a  false  reli- 
gion. You  can  establish  the  principles  of  liberty  and  truth,  you 
can  lift  the  people  from  their  prejudices  and  bring  the  light  of 
immortality  to  all  hearts. 

The  Turks  met  the  Mohammedan  religion  as  they  were  going 
southward,  invading  the  country.  Now  for  eight  centuries  they 
have  held  it  fast  —  or  it  might  better  be  said  that  the  religion  has 
held  the  Turks  fast.  Progress  has  been  impossible  under  the 
tyrannous  yoke  of  Islam.  And  yet  there  are  many  worthy  ele- 
ments in  Mohammedanism.  We  should  be  very  unjust  if  we  did 
not  acknowledge  this.  Benevolence  and  hospitality  are  taught 
and  practiced. 

The  "  brotherhood  "  of  men,  although  restricted  to  Moslems,  is 
far  better  than  the  caste  system  of  India.  The  muezzins  in  every 
city  and  village  five  times  a  day  remind  the  people  of  the  duty  of 
prayer,  and  the  first  half  of  the  Moslem  creed  states  the  great  truth 
of  monotheism,  "  There  is  no  god  but  God."  But  there  is  a  dark 
side  to  all  this.  The  figure  of  Mohammed  has  cast  a  mighty 
shadow  on  the  earth.  There  are  false  and  harmful  elements  in 
the  religion  which  he  instituted.  The  Mohammed  who  declared 
himself  the  seal  of  all  the  prophets,  the  Mohammed  who  asserted 
that  he  had  been  carried  to  the  seventh  heaven  and  that  he  had 
there  held  converse  with  God,  this  Mohammed  who  exalted  him- 


CHRISTIAN    missions    IX    TURKEY.  161 

self  as  superior  to  Moses  and  Christ,  completely  broke  down  under 
the  temptations  of  pride  and  lust  and  revenge.  He  butchered 
three  hundred  Jewish  captives  in  the  market-place,  and  in  his 
private  life  broke  all  the  Mosaic  commandments.  He  denied  the 
divinity  of  Jesus,  boldly  asserted  that  some  other  person  than 
Jesus  was  crucified  on  Calvary,  and  that  the  disciples  invented 
the  resurrection.  He  seems  to  have  gone  so  far  as  to  identify 
himself,  by  a  clever  play  on  words,  with  the  promised  Holy  Spirit, 
or  Paraclete.  These  are  a  few  of  the  alleged  revelations  of  Moham- 
med. You  can  well  imagine  how  the  intellectual  life  must  be 
atrophied  and  education  undeveloped  under  the  tyranny  of  the 
Koran.  Freedom  of  thought  in  science,  in  common  law,  and 
political  policy,  is  practically  impossible  under  the  decrees  of  Islam. 
For  those  cases  where  the  Koran  does  not  contain  explicit  direc- 
tions, written  tradition  has  accumulated  a  vast  network  of  statutes. 

In  Moslem  lands  the  home  life  is  unhappy,  because  it  lacks  the 
fine  principles  of  Christian  chivalry.  Marriage  is  degraded  by 
the  institution  of  polygamy,  and  a  divorce  may  be  pronounced 
in  three  words  by  the  husband  at  any  time.  The  wearing  of  the 
veil,  and  the  forced  seclusion  of  the  women  are  unnatural  and  hurt- 
ful conditions.  But  there  is  another  institution  of  oppression. 
Do  you  realize  that  slavery,  human  slavery,  is  authorized  and 
practiced  in  Mohammedan  lands  today?  Negro  men  and  women, 
brought  by  painful  journeys  from  the  heart  of  Africa,  beautiful 
white  children  from  the  Caucasus,  are  bought  and  sold  for  a  price 
in  the  markets  of  those  Turkish  cities.  These  transactions  are 
kept  secret  as  much  as  possible,  but  I  know  of  them  from  ej-e- 
witnesses.  The  lords  in  some  of  those  great  cities  have  from 
three  hundred  to  four  hundred  slaves  apiece.  These  are  the 
actual  conditions.  We  must  work  patiently  for  many  years  that 
our  lives  may  count  as  a  good,  clean  blow  for  the  freedom  of  the 
slaves.  It  is  my  ambition,  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  strike 
a  last  blow  at  the  institution  of  slavery! 

A  professor  in  one  of  our  leading  American  educational  institu- 
tions said  to  me  recently:  "  The  slaves  in  those  Mohammedan 
countries  are  really  better  off  as  they  are.  They  are  taken  care 
of  by  their  masters,  and  it  is  better  for  them  to  remain  slaves." 
"  They  are  better  taken  care  of  "  —  my  friends,  I  know  how 
they  are  taken  care  of.  They  are  beaten  and  cursed,  and  they 
have  no  justice  in  the  courts.  The  women  are  maltreated  and 
their  children  are  taken  from  their  arms  to  be  sold. 


162  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

To  right  these  wrongs  and  redeem  the  nation  we  have  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ,  not  to  hold,  but  to  send.  If  the  Moslem  creed 
runs,  "  There  is  no  god  but  God,  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet," 
my  creed  is,  "  There  is  no  god  but  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
Saviour  of  the  world."  With  Christian  liberty  comes  the  progress 
of  science.  Missionary  hospitals  and  colleges  and  schools  demon- 
strate the  love  that  "  beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things, 
hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things."  The  home  life  which  was 
disgraced  by  Mohammed  is  honored  and  sanctified  by  Jesus  Christ. 
By  the  Church  of  the  living  Christ,  Turkey  can  be  redeemed. 
In  the  face  of  all  the  obstacles  and  all  the  age-long  prejudice,  this 
can  be  done.  Bishop  Thomas  Valpy  French  went  into  the  mosque 
in  Muscat  one  Easter  morning  not  many  years  ago.  The  Arabs 
respected  his  venerable  appearance  and  asked  him  to  read  the 
Koran  from  the  pulpit.  He  replied  that  he  had  his  own  Scriptures 
with  him.  So  he  went  down  among  the  people  and  opened  to 
the  glorious  twenty-third  and  twenty-fourth  chapters  of  St.  Luke's 
gospel.  And  that  congregation  of  Mohammedans  listened  spell- 
bound to  the  marvelous  record  of  Jesus'  resurrection.  Is  that 
not  a  sign  of  what  can  be  done  in  the  redemption  of  Turkey? 

The  blessed  gospel  of  Jesus  shall  free  the  slaves  as  it  did  in 
Rome  in  those  early  days  when  the  Catacombs  resounded  with  the 
Christian  hymns;  as  it  did  in  India  when  the  firm  hand  of  the 
British  government  established  the  laws  of  personal  justice.  The 
gospel  shall  free  the  slaves,  as  it  did  in  East  Africa  when  Living- 
stone and  Mackay  laid  down  their  lives  for  the  cause;  as  it  did  in 
America  when  Abraham  Lincoln  prayed  and  planned  and  toiled 
in  the  cabinet  room  at>  Washington. 

The  institution  of  slavery  has  been  abolished  from  all  the 
countries  under  the  sun,  except  the  Barbary  states,  the  kingdom 
of  Persia,  and  the  empire  of  Turkey.  .  Today,  under  the  sanction 
of  Moslem  law,  men  and  women  and  children  are  being  sold  in 
the  markets  of  Constantinople  and  Smyrna  and  Aleppo.  You  do 
not  know  all  the  tears  and  wretchedness.  But  the  redemption 
of  Turkey  is  at  hand!  God  has  intrusted  to  the  Christian  Church 
of  today  the  gospel  of  freedom  for  those  aching  hearts.  I  shall 
close  with  a  daring  prophecy.  Within  this  present  century  the 
backbone  of  the  Turkish  people  shall  be  the  ethics  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  And  the  cross  which  for  eight  centuries  has  been  dis- 
honored in  that  land  shall  be  uplifted  as  the  sign  of  forgiveness  and 
peace. 


CHANGES   IN   MISSIONARY    PRACTICE.  163 


CHANGES  WITHIN  THE  CENTURY  IN  FOREIGN 
MISSIONARY  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE. 

Rev.  Henry  C.  King,  D.D.,  President  of  Oberlin  College. 

No  attempt  is  made  in  this  paper  to  add  another  to  the  many 
general  centennial  surveys  of  missions  that  have  appeared  in 
recent  years.  Elaborate  quotation  of  documents,  too,  is  plainly 
impossible.  And  you  will  understand  that  while  the  statements 
of  the  paper  may  be  supposed  to  be  generally  applicable,  they  will 
have  reference  primarily  to  the  work  of  this  Board. 

For  help  in  getting  the  historical  data  implied  in  my  subject,  I 
am  particularly  indebted  to  Mr.  Edward  Warren  Capen's  careful 
research,  and  to  Dr.  E.  E.  Strong,  though  this  historical  material 
I  shall  be  able  to  use,  for  the  most  part,  not  for  direct  quotation, 
but  only  as  giving  warrant  for  conclusions  drawn. 

The  subject  assigned  me  was  quite  definitely  indicated.  I  am 
asked  to  speak  on  "  Changes  within  the  Century  in  Foreign 
Missionary  Theory  and  Practice,  as  respects  the  Need  of  Carrying 
the  Gospel  to  Non-Christian  Nations,  as  Respects  the  Attitude 
to  be  taken  toward  Non-Christian  Religions,  and  as  Respects  the 
Method  of  Approaching  these  People  and  Winning  Them  to 
Christ." 

In  the  treatment  of  this  subject  I  shall  ask  you  to  notice,  first, 
that  it  is  not  possible  to  assert  any  absolute  change  in  spirit  and 
methods,  but  only  relative  contrasts;  and  that  these  contrasts, 
important  though  relative,  are  due  to  influences  working  at  both 
the  home  and  the  foreign  ends  of  the  missionary  enterprise. 
That  is,  I  am  to  ask  you  to  notice  that  the  changes  that  have 
taken  place  are  to  be  regarded,  on  the  one  hand,  as  the  inevitable 
result  of  the  gigantic  application  of  the  laboratory  method  of 
Christianity  on  the  foreign  field;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  as  due 
to  the  modifying  influence  of  certain  great,  growing  convictions 
of  the  century.  Out  of  the  changed  point  of  view,  brought  about 
in  this  double  way,  have  grown  the  present-day  conception  of  the 
need,  attitude,  and  method  in  foreign  missionary  work. 

Prevailing  Motive. 

I.  And,  first,  it  deserves  emphasis  that  it  is  not  possible  to  assert 
any  absolute  change  in  spirit  and  methods  within  the  century,  but 


164  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

only  relative  contrasts  between  the  spirit  and  methods  prevailing 
at  the  beginning  and  at  the  end  of  the  century.  One  can  hardly 
touch  the  inner  spirit  of  the  earliest  men,  from  Samuel  J.  Mills 
on,  and  fail  to  see  that  one  great  motive,  after  all,  has  continu- 
ously prevailed.  "  The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us;  because 
we  thus  judge,  that  one  died  for  all,  therefore  all  died;  and  he 
died  for  all,  that  they  which  live  should  no  longer  live  unto  them- 
selves, but  unto  him  who  for  their  sakes  died  and  rose  again.  We 
are  ambassadors  therefore  on  behalf  of  Christ,  as  though  God 
were  entreating  by  us :  we  beseech  you  on  behalf  of  Christ,  be  ye 
reconciled  to  God."  The  earliest  missionary  leaders  were  moved 
with  Christ's  own  great  compassion  for  the  multitude,  "  because 
they  were  distressed  and  scattered,  as  sheep  not  having  a  shep- 
herd." This  love  for  Christ,  and  this  sharing  in  the  love  and 
compassion  of  Christ,  are  unmistakable  throughout  the  century, 
though  they  inevitably  express  themselves,  of  course,  in  the 
current  theological  emphases  of  the  time;  and,  therefore,  for  a 
considerable  part  of  the  century  are  voiced  in  the  sense  of  the 
awful  peril  of  the  heathen  of  endless  punishment  in  hell.  Thus, 
as  late  as  1852,  Secretary  Pomeroy  writes,  "  If  the  Christians 
of  this  land  could  stand  together  on  some  eminence  near  the  gates 
of  eternity  and  see  the  sweeping  torrent  of  deathless  souls  from 
the  realm  of  paganism  daily  and  hourly  passing  through  and 
plunging  into  the  fathomless  depths  below,  what  eye  would  not 
run  down  with  tears?  "  At  the  same  time  the  yearning  com- 
passion is  plainly  there,  and  the  sense,  too,  of  Christ  as  the  one 
great,  mighty  deliverer.  And  it  is  love  to  him  and  sense  of  his 
love  for  men  which  inspires  the  compassion  even  so  expressed. 
Hell  claims  a  continuous  and  well-nigh  engrossing  attention  for 
many  years.  But  it  would  be  a  great  misconception  to  suppose 
that  this  at  any  time  shut  out  the  greater  motive,  or  that  the 
emphasis  on  it  was  any  other  than  a  temporary  mode  of  expres- 
sion for  that  greater  motive  which  lay  behind  it. 

Broad  Methods. 

Similarly  as  to  methods.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  name  any 
method  totally  unrepresented  at  the  very  beginning  of  missions. 
All  of  the  present  departments  of  work  —  evangelistic,  educa- 
tional, industrial,  medical,  and  publication  —  may  be  said  to 
date  back,  in  some  form,  to  the  very  early  days. 

For  example,  as  early  as    1817  the  Ceylon  missionaries  were 


CHANGES    1\    MISSIONARY    PRACTICE.  165 

undertaking  somewhat  definite  medical  work,  and  had  succeeded 
in  collecting  from  individuals  on  the  field  funds  to  build  a 
hospital  and  to  furnish  it  with  some  accommodation  for  the  sick 
poor. 

The  industrial  side  of  missionary  work  Samuel  J.  Mills  had  very 
clearly  in  mind.  And  the  industrial  work  was  emphasized  among 
the  Indians,  and  was  contemplated  for  the  Hawaiians. 

And  the  changes  in  the  educational  work  may  be  taken  as  some- 
what typical  of  all  the  changes  in  methods  that  have  taken  place. 
In  India  and  Hawaii  educational  work  was  developed  at  the  very 
beginning. 

Strong  contrasts  can  be  made  here,  but  they  are  only  relative. 
In  fact,  the  middle  of  the  century  shows  something  of  a  reaction 
from  the  notably  broad  spirit  of  the  instructions  to  the  first 
missionaries.  And  the  deputation  to  the  missions  in  India  in 
1854-55  took  such  action  that  some  of  the  higher  institutions  in 
the  Madura  and  Ceylon  missions  were  much  limited  in  their  scope. 
On  the  recommendation  of  the  deputation  the  schools  were  to  be 
conducted  in  the  vernacular,  and  only  those  who  were  in  direct 
preparation  for  the  ministry  should  be  given  any  higher  courses 
in  connection  with  the  mission.  This  was  not  only  a  reaction 
from  the  natural  development  of  the  Board's  own  work,  but  a 
repudiation  of  the  very  method,  introduced  in  1830  by  Alexander 
Duff,  which  Eugene  Stock  believes  made  "  a  great  epoch  in  India 
missions,"  "  a  new  method  to  reach  the  higher  classes  and  castes; 
gaining  access  to  them  by  the  offer  of  a  good  English  education, 
and  thus  bringing  them  under  the  daily  influence  of  Bible  teaching 
and  the  personal  touch  of  the  missionary."  The  later  educational 
emphasis,  thus,  is  in  part  a  return  to  earlier  principles. 

One  cannot  go  over,  however,  the  report  of  this  deputation  of 
1854-55  without  feeling  the  sincere  desire  on  both  sides  to  reach 
the  right  conclusion,  nor  without  realizing  the  difficulty  of  the 
problem  to  be  met.  The  question  of  the  relation  of  means  to  ends 
must  always  remain  a  difficult  one.  For  means,  especially  if  in 
themselves  very  important,  are,  for  that  very  reason,  the  more 
liable  to  take  the  place  of  ends.  And  this  plainly  was  the  fear 
of  the  deputation  concerning  the  higher  schools  of  learning. 

It  should  be  noticed,  too,  that  the  theoretical  grounds  of  the 
methods  employed  were  probably  much  less  clearly  and  con- 
sciously seen  and  acted  on  then  than  is  now  the  case.  It  is  not 
strange,  therefore,  that  there  should  have  been  marked  differences 


166  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

of  opinion,  especially  between  those  on  the  field  and  those  at  home. 
In  the  matter  of  education  the  Madura  and  Ceylon  missions  felt, 
at  the  time  of  the  deputation,  and  have  since  felt,  that  the  decision 
reached  in  view  of  the  report  of  the  deputation  was  a  backward 
step.  Secretary  Anderson  spoke  of  the  decision  as  the  result  of 
"  the  pressure  of  experience."  One  of  the  missionaries  retorted 
that,  so  far  as  they  were  concerned,  it  was  rather  "  the  experience 
of  a  pressure." 

Though  the  Board  has  never  in  any  formal  way  reversed  its 
decision  of  that  time,  the  timidity  of  the  educational  policy  of  the 
deputation  may  be  set  in  broad  contrast  with  the  unhesitating 
breadth  of  the  present-day  policy,  as  voiced  by  Secretary  Barton, 
in  speaking  of  the  higher  educational  institutions  of  the  American 
Board:  "  These  colleges,  in  nine  different  countries  and  in  twelve  of 
the  missions  of  the  American  Board,  form  the  solid  basis  for  the 
steady  and  permanent  progress  of  the  Christian  work  as  well  as 
for  the  elevation  and  civilization  of  the  people  among  whom  they 
are  established.     These  institutions 

"  1.  Provide  the  men  and  women  who  are  to  be  the  direct 
evangelizers  of  their  own  people. 

"  2.  Train  those  who  shall  be  educators  and  teachers  in  these 
countries  and  the  constructors  and  directors  of  educational  sys- 
tems. 

"  3.  Train  those  who  shall  later  become  Christian  lawyers  and 
physicians. 

"4.  Train  men  who  will  occupy  important  places  under 
the  local  government  and  so  exert  an  influence  in  national 
affairs. 

"  5.  Train  men  who  will  become  creators  of  a  national  litera- 
ture. 

"  6.  Train  men  who  shall  build  up  business  enterprises  in  various 
lines. 

"  7.  Furnish  the  entire  Christian  community  with  intelligent 
leaders  in  every  wTalk  of  life,  insuring  wise  management  and  safe 
organization. 

"  8.  Insure  self-supporting,  self-directing,  and  self-propagating 
native  Christian  institutions  of  all  kinds  and  in  all  countries  where 
we  are  carrying  on  work." 

But  these  broad,  clear  aims  are  in  entire  harmony  with  Dr. 
Worcester's  instructions  to  the  missionaries  to  Hawaii,  given  as 
early  as  1827:    "  Consider  the  best  modes  of  introducing  educa- 


CHANGES    IN    MISSIONARY    PRACTICE.  167 

tion  among  them,  and  of  forming  them  into  a  reading,  thinking, 
cultivated  state  of  society,  with  all  its  schools  and  semiuaries,  its 
aits  and  institutions." 

Similar  comparison  might  be  made  as  to  other  sides  of  the 
missionary  work.  Differences  there  are,  but  absolute  contrasts 
can  hardly  be  asserted. 

Applied  Christian  Principles. 

II.  These  changes,  let  me  now  ask  you  to  observe,  whether  in 
spirit  or  method,  have  developed  from  the  simple  working  out  of 
the  Christian  principles.  Christian  missions  were  really  a  gigantic 
application  of  the  laboratory  method  to  Christianity.  We  have 
come  very  clearly  to  see,  in  our  time,  that  no  truth  or  principle  is 
properly  and  thoroughly  mastered  until  it  has  been  wrought  out 
in  action.  To  see  what  a  truth  means,  you  must  do  it.  Modern 
education  believes  that  this  principle  holds  even  for  mathematical 
and  chemical  truths.  The  principle  must  hold  much  more  in  the 
realm  of  the  moral  and  spiritual. 

Now,  the  aim  of  Christian  missions  was  to  bring  men  to  Christ. 
What  does  it  mean  to  bring  men  to  Christ?  No  man  can  fully  tell 
till  he  works  it  out.  There  has  been,  therefore,  steadily  upon  the 
mission  field  an  inevitable  reaction  of  the  practice  of  missions 
upon  the  theory  of  missions.*  And  mischief  has  always  resulted 
where  theory,  formed  away  from  the  field,  has  been  allowed  to 
dominate  missionary  practice.  The  clearly  and  consciously 
enlarged  and  enriched  conception  of  missions  which  belongs  to 
the  present  day  is  not  simply,  perhaps  not  mainly,  the  result  of 
changing  theological  or  sociological  convictions  at  home.  It  is 
the  immediate  result  of  the  working  out  of  the  Christian  idea  on 
the  mission  field.  Dr.  Sidney  L.  Gulick  is  probably  quite  justified 
in  saying:  "  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  foreign  missions 
first  took  on  sociological  forms  of  work  and  international  value 
only  after,  and  because  of,  the  rise  of  sociological  conceptions  of 
man.  On  the  contrary,  although  foreign  missions  started  from  a 
frankly  individualistic  theory  of  religion  and  salvation,  the  actual 
work  was  from  the  start  practical  and  sociological.  It  would  be 
truer  to  say  that  Christian  thought  in  regard  to  foreign  missions 
has  become  sociological  through  observation  of  and  reflection  on 
what  missions  were  actually  doing  than  through  the  rise  of  socio- 
logical speculation  along  other  lines  of  thought.  Practice  has 
always  preceded  theory,  as  it  always  does  in  the  large.     It  is 


168  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

probably  safe  to  say  that  the  sociological  conception  of  the  func- 
tion and  value  of  foreign  missions  is  more  due  to  missionary 
experience  than  to  the  general  sociological  trend  of  modern 
science." 

In  fact,  the  adoption  of  the  different  forms  of  missionary  activity 
has  been,  as  is  very  suggestively  pointed  out  in  a  recent  article  in 
the  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  an  inevitable  "  evolution." 
First,  there  is  the  "  evangelistic  type,"  "  the  first  type  of  mis- 
sionary work,  first  in  time,  first  also  in  importance  and  in  its  right 
to  dominate  and  shape  the  whole  field  of  missionary  operations." 
But  the  very  success  of  the  evangelistic  type  demands  a  second 
type  of  missionary  work,  the  pastoral  and  supervisional.  "  As 
a  certain  experienced  and  devoted  missionary  once  whimsically 
said, '  When  you  baptize  your  first  convert,  your  troubles  begin.'  " 
But  it  is  impossible  to  stop  with  the  pastoral  and  supervisional. 
For  in  all  this  work  "  the  missionary  has  a  triune  aim."  He  aims 
to  make  the  native  churches  self-supporting,  self-directing,  and 
self-extending.  "  The  missionary  trains  and  fosters  churches 
that  he  may  make  them  evangelistic  forces."  That  these  churches 
now  may  be  self-supporting,  self-directing,  and  self-extending,  all 
the  other  agencies  of  modern  missions  are  really  demanded,  — 
educational,  industrial,  literary,  medical.  Educational,  for  the 
reasons  already  clearly  set  forth;  industrial,  both  for  the  distinct 
educational  value  of  industrial  training,  and  for  its  imperative 
economic  need  in  many  fields,  if  the  missionary  churches  are  to  be 
truly  self-supporting  and  self-extending;  literary,  as  a  matter  of 
course  for  any  possible  growth;  medical,  not  only  because  medical 
missions  are  "  the  pioneers  of  evangelism,"  but  even  more  because 
they  are  "  permanent  agencies  of  evangelism,"  especially  in  help- 
ing the  people  "  to  realize  that  the  spirit  of  Christianity  is  love." 
In  the  words  of  our  article,  "  all  these  types  of  work  flow  out  of 
evangelism.  They  also  flow  back  into  evangelism.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  direct  evangelistic  work  is  greater  in  amount  and  better 
in  quality  because  of  the  work  of  oversight,  of  education,  the 
literary,  the  medical,  and  the  industrial  work.  They  are  all 
justified  by  evangelism,  the  source  from  which  they  spring,  the 
end  to  which  they  tend." 

The  inevitableness,  in  the  evolution  of  missions,  of  every  other 
broad  change  that  has  taken  place  in  the  field  within  the  century 
may  be  similarly  argued.  The  much  larger  employment  of  women, 
for  example,  obtaining  from  1S6S  on,  was  a  necessity  if  a  very 


CHANGES    IN    MISSIONARY    PRACTICE.  169 

large  part  of  the  field  —  women  and  children  —  were  not  to  be 
left  almost  unevangelized.  The  greater  centralization  of  work  now 
prevailing  was  demanded,  if  the  educational  work  were  to  be  done 
most  economically  and  effectively,  and  due  recognition  were  to  be 
given  to  the  discovery  of  the  second  quarter  of  the  century  that 
"  the  native  Christians  are  the  best  evangelists  to  their  heathen 
fellow-countrymen."  In  the  same  way  the  changing  attitude 
toward  the  ethnic  faiths,  seen  in  the  deliberate  seeking  of  points 
of  contact  with  them,  was  a  pedagogical  necessity  for  a  successful 
evangelism.  From  every  direction,  the  conviction  was  steadily 
pressed  home  upon  the  missionary  evangelist  that  the  only  way 
of  winning  a  man  to  Christ  was  to  win  the  whole  man,  not  some 
abstract  fraction  of  a  man.  It  is  a  far  cry  from  the  not  solitary 
conception  of  the  little  girl,  mentioned  by  Dr.  Leonard,  who 
denned  a  missionary  to  be  "  a  man  standing  under  a  tree  and 
reading  the  Bible  to  everybody  who  passed  by." 

This  evolutionary  conception  of  missions  seems  to  me  to  illus- 
trate admirably  the  laboratory  method  as  applied  to  Christianity. 
We  do  not  really  see  all  that  it  means  to  bring  men  to  Christ  until 
we  have  entered  thoroughly  and  honestly  upon  the  attempt. 
When  we  have  made  the  attempt  in  dead  earnest,  the  present 
richly  complex  conception  of  missions  is  compelled. 

Wundt's  famous  principle  of  the  "  heterogeny  of  ends"  —  that, 
in  the  eternal  pursuit  of  any  end,  new  ends  and  motives  are  seen 
to  arise  —  has  no  finer  illustration  anywhere  than  in  the  develop- 
ing missionary  activity,  in  which  great  ends  have  multiplied,  to  be 
made  subordinate  only  to  the  one  great  original  and  supreme  end. 

It  is  worth  noting  that,  in  consequence  of  this  constant  pressure 
of  the  laboratory  method,  our  leading  missionaries  have  often 
been  in  advance,  religiously  and  theologically,  of  home  thought 
and  sentiment.  The  working  out  of  the  Christian  ideals  in  the 
laboratory  of  experience,  has  forced  them  to  lay  aside  certain 
theories  and  preconceptions,  and  to  modify  certain  methods. 
The  leaders  among  them  have  thus  shown  an  appreciation  of  the 
complexity  of  the  problem,  of  the  needed  social  emphasis,  and  of 
the  inevitableness  of  greater  denominational  unity,  as  well  as  of 
the  conception  of  the  true  relation  to  the  non-Christian  religions, 
that  has  been  rarely  matched  at  home.  The  inevitable  logic  of 
the  constraining  love  of  Christ  has  wrought  from  the  beginning 
more  largely  and  richly  than  ecclesiastical  or  theological  dogmas 
could  suggest. 


170  the  haystack  centennial. 

Certain  Growing  Convictions. 

III.  But  while  the  very  working  out  of  the  Christian  motive 
on  the  missionary  field  has  inevitably  affected  missionary  theory 
and  practice,  it  is  also  true  that  there  have  been,  through  the 
century,  certain  great,  growing  convictions  affecting  the  minds  of  all 
thoughtful  men,  that  have,  in  their  turn,  tended  to  modify 
missionary  theory  and  practice,  and  for  the  most  part  in  the  very 
ways  which  the  laboratory  method  in  the  field  had  suggested. 

The  limits  of  this  paper  plainly  forbid  even  a  summary  state- 
ment of  the  development  of  thought  during  the  century.  But  it- 
may  be  indicated,  at  least,  that  missionary  theory  and  practice 
have  been  inevitably  affected  by  certain  great,  growing  emphases 
coming  from  theology,  from  natural  science,  from  psychology, 
sociology,  and  comparative  religion. 

In  theology,  two  great  convictions  have  been  increasingly  domi- 
nant: the  conviction  of  the  practical  lordship  of  Christ  within  the 
Bible  and  without,  and  the  conviction  of  the  fatherhood  of  God. 
In  other  words,  even  where  there  has  not  been  clear  consciousness 
of  it,  theology  seems  to  have  been  recognizing  more  and  more  with 
Fairbairn  that  theology  must  be  "  as  regards  source,  Christ o- 
centric,  but  as  regards  object  and  matter,  theocentric;  in  other 
words,  while  Christ  determines  the  conception  of  God,  the  con- 
ception determines  the  theology."  And  Christ  conceives  God 
fundamentally  as  father.  And  this  conception  must  be  held  to 
be  determining  in  its  effect  upon  every  other  theological  doctrine. 

It  is  these  dominating  convictions  of  the  lordship  of  Christ  and 
the  fatherhood  of  God  that,  I  suppose,  have  made  it  impossible 
for  us  to  give  exactly  the  same  place  in  our  thought  to  hell  that 
the  earlier  secretaries  and  missionaries  gave  to  it.  It  is  not  that 
fatherhood  has  been  conceived  as  mere  good  nature,  and  it  is  not 
that  there  is  any  diminution  of  the  conviction  that  no  man  can 
sow  to  the  flesh  and  reap  life,  but  some  larger  hope  seemed  neces- 
sary, if  the  unrelieved  blackness  of  the  earlier  pictures  were  not  to 
break  down  altogether  our  faith  in  God  as  father,  and  so  take 
away  the  very  sense  of  good  news,  out  of  which  springs  all  mis- 
sionary activity. 

With  this  conception  of  the  fatherhood  of  God,  too,  sin  has  not 
become  less,  but  more  terrible.  For,  in  the  words  of  another, 
"  the  judge  does  not  fear  crime,  as  the  father  fears  the  very  taint 
of  vice."     "  And  so,  even  within  Christendom,  sin  is  never  so 


CHANGES   IN    MISSIONARY    PRACTICE.  171 

little  feared,  as  when  hell  most  dominates  the  imagination;  it 
needs  to  be  looked  at  as  it  affects  God,  to  be  understood  and 
feared."  We  have  come  to  think  more,  thus,  of  the  moral  need 
of  the  sinner,  and  his  personal  alienation  from  God,  than  of 
hell  conceived  as  a  kind  of  external  punishment.  And  we  have 
feared  the  sin  more  than  any  external  penalty. 

And,  in  the  same  way,  this  double  conviction  of  the  lordship 
of  Christ,  and  the  consequent  sense  of  God  as  father,  has  made  it 
impossible  for  us  to  treat  the  Scripture  as  all  on  a  level,  equally 
important  and  equally  authoritative.  We  should  probably  none 
of  us  now  think  that  the  earlier  chapters  of  Genesis  were  to  be 
among  the  very  first  parts  of  the  Bible  to  be  translated  into  the 
vernacular.  And,  in  general,  we  may  hope  that  salvation  means 
much  less  than  formerly  the  acceptance  of  a  system  of  doctrine. 
We  should  certainly  hardly  expect  a  modern  mission  voluntarily 
to  propose  to  another  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  with 
a  few  modifications,  as  its  chosen  basis  for  union. 

Side  by  side  with  these  theological  convictions,  there  have  been 
at  work  the  great  scientific  conceptions  of  the  universality  of  law 
and  of  the  theory  of  evolution.  These  ideas  remain  still  far  too 
much,  for  most  thinkers,  simple  abstractions,  thought  of  as  able 
to  do  something  in  and  of  themselves.  Most  men  have  not  made 
sufficiently  clear  to  themselves  just  how  law  and  evolution  can 
be  conceived  as  realities.  The  consequences  of  these  great  scien- 
tific ideas  for  religion  and  theology  have  been  only  partly  drawn, 
and  where  drawn  the  emphasis  has  often  been  placed  at  the  wrong 
point.  But  even  so,  with  other  influences,  they  have  tended,  no 
doubt,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  to  restore  Christianity's  latent 
belief  in  the  immanent  God,  to  change  the  emphasis  from  the 
miraculous  to  the  ethical  and  spiritual,  to  bring  into  greater 
prominence  the  thought  of  a  normal  and  hopeful  growth  in  the 
religious  life,  and  of  the  prevalence  of  law  in  the  moral  and  spiritual 
world,  and  to  make  it  inevitable  that  we  should  think  of  the  other 
religions  as  having  some  place  in  the  natural  religious  develop- 
ment of  the  race.  And  they  have  brought,  as  well,  in  harmony 
with  Christ's  ov  n  parables  of  the  leaven  and  of  the  mustard  seed, 
some  larger  hope  of  a  continuous  development,  both  here  and 
hereafter. 

But  still  more  directly  than  by  science  have  missionary  theory 
and  practice  been  influenced  by  the  development  of  modern 
psychology,   sociology,   and   comparative   religion.     These   great 


172  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

departments  of  study  all  belong,  in  the  modern  sense,  to  quite 
recent  years,  and  every  one  of  them  has  close  connections  with  the 
missionary  work. 

Psychology's  four  great  convictions  of  the  complexity  of  life, 
of  the  unity  of  man,  of  the  central  importance  of  will  and  action, 
and  of  the  preeminence  of  the  personal,  are  all  reflected  in  modern 
missionary  theory  and  practice.  These  show,  in  the  first  place, 
as  we  have  seen,  a  much  clearer  sense  than  the  earlier  missionary 
days  showed  of  the  inescapable  complexity  of  the  missionary 
problem.  They  show,  in  the  many-sided  recognition  of  the  needs 
of  man,  the  sense  of  his  unity;  that  training  anywhere  is  training 
everywhere,  and  that  neglect  anywhere  affects  all,  while  the 
industrial  missions,  and  the  increasing  calling  out  everywhere  of 
the  activity  and  initiative  of  the  evangelized  peoples  themselves, 
are  all  in  line  with  the  present  "  voluntaristic  trend  "  in  psychol- 
ogy. And  the  whole  history  of  missions  is  a  splendid  illustration 
of  the  matchless  contagion  of  the  leaven  of  personal  association 
reverently  carried  out.  One  may  even  wonder  if  the  finest  thing 
in  the  exceptionally  successful  Barrows  Lectures  of  President 
Charles  Cuthbert  Hall  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  spirit  of  them, 
indicated  in  the  dedication,  "  In  the  spirit  of  brotherhood,  and 
with  true  respect  for  the  various  faiths  of  men." 

And  the  sociological  emphasis  at  home  has  doubtless  interacted 
with  the  increasingly  social  practice  of  the  missions  abroad.  In 
the  modern  organically  unified  world,  when  one  has  begun  to  say 
at  home,  "  We  are  members  one  of  another,"  he  must  end  in 
foreign  missions,  and  of  the  broadest  type.  The  sociologist  who 
is  not  a  foreign  missionary,  at  least  in  spirit,  denies  himself. 
Comparative  religion  has  had  its  marked  contribution  to  make 
to  the  resources  and  to  the  spirit  of  missionary  endeavor. 

IV.  The  influence  of  the  laboratory  practice  abroad  and  of 
changing  convictions  at  home  have  thus  together  brought  us  to 
the  present-day  conception  of  need,  attitude,  and  method  in  foreign 
missionary  service. 

The  Need. 

And,  first,  as  to  need.  So  far  as  hesitancy  in  the  foreign  mis- 
sionary enterprise  is  religious  at  all,  and  does  not  merely  grow  out 
of  disbelief  in  the  real  value  of  religion,  or  of  the  spiritual,  it 
probably  roots  most  of  all  in  a  sound  instinct  going  back  to 


CHANGES   IX   MISSIONARY    PRAGTK   I  .  173 

Christian  feeling,  and  to  a  modern  psychological  and  sociological 
point  of  view.  For  all  these  lead  to  a  newly  awakened  genuine 
respect  for  the  significance  of  the  ideals  of  others.  There  is  no 
question  that  we  do  need  carefully  to  guard  ourselves  at  this 
point.  There  is,  as  Professor  James  has  so  admirably  insisted,  "  a 
certain  blindness  in  human  beings  "  which  makes  it  hard  for  us 
to  enter  into  the  feelings  and  ideals  of  others.  Recognizing,  now, 
the  full  weight  of  these  modern  convictions  and  ideals,  where, 
still,  lies  the  need  for  the  Christian  of  carrying  the  gospel  to  non- 
Christian  nations?  What  is  the  great  motive?  It  certainly  does 
not  lie  in  the  mere  thought  of  hell,  however  keen  one's  perception 
of  the  certainty  of  retribution;  nor  in  the  thought  of  the  command 
even  of  Christ  regarded  as  external,  however  high  the  lordship 
ascribed  to  him;  nor  yet  in  the  thought  of  a  prescribed  task  of 
witnessing  as  a  formal  condition  to  be  fulfilled  for  the  coming  of 
the  Lord,  however  clear  one's  expectation  at  this  point  may  be. 
Equally  certain  is  it  that  the  motive  does  not  lie  in  a  supercilious 
attitude  taken  toward  other  peoples  and  their  values  and  ideals; 
nor  in  the  denial  of  their  present  and  later  possible  contribution  to 
the  understanding  and  interpretation  of  Christianity.  We  must 
recognize,  and  modern  missionary  theory  and  practice  are  increas- 
ingly recognizing,  that  these  other  peoples  must  have  their  own 
opportunity  for  practical  and  theoretical  interpretation  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  that  they  have  their  own  large  contribution  to  make 
to  the  world's  understanding  of  its  greatest  faith.  It  is  quite 
possible  that  the  Indian  or  Japanese  interpretation  of  Christianity 
may  have  as  large  a  contribution  as  the  American  or  the  German. 

But  even  so,  when  one  takes  into  account  the  growing  unity  of 
the  world,  the  steadily  increasing  intimacy  of  the  relations  of  part 
to  part,  he  must  see  that  we  cannot  avoid  influencing  these  other 
peoples  if  we  would.  The  only  question  is  whether  the  influence 
shall  be  that  of  our  best;  whether  unselfish  interests  shall  keep 
pace  with  the  selfish  in  their  influence  upon  the  rest  of  the  world. 
For  we  do  send  these  other  influences.  The  whole  machinery  of 
government,  even,  is  behind  our  commercial  advances,  even  when 
this  commerce  is  of  things  that  bring  harm  rather  than  good.  We 
are  giving  our  worst.     We  owe  doubly  our  best. 

The  absolute  disparity  of  numbers  of  missionaries,  too,  com- 
pared with  those  to  whom  they  minister,  makes  it  impossible 
that  there  should  be  any  real  domination  of  the  ideals  of  the  one 
people  by  the  few  representatives  of  the  other.     Th.ese  insignifi- 


174  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

cant  numbers  can  make  progress  with  their  faith  at  all  only  as 
its  appeal  really  reaches  the  minds  and  hearts  of  those  to  whom 
they  speak.  These  choose,  they  are  not  dominated.  Even  more 
than  at  home  is  this  the  case.  The  sole  principle  is  that  of  the 
contagion  of  the  little  righteous  leaven,  the  contagion  of  "the  sons 
of  the  kingdom. 

The  need  of  our  carrying  the  gospel  to  non-Christian  nations, 
therefore,  lies  first  of  all  in  our  own  moral  need  of  sharing  our 
best,  and  not  merely  our  worst.  Is  our  need  at  home  oppressively 
great?  Are  we  "  dazzled  by  a  too  near  look  at  material  things?  " 
All  the  more  we  need  to  remember:  "  Man  grows  by  greatness  of 
his  purposes."  And  great  world-wide  ambitions  are  yet  going  to 
be  in  evidence  just  here  among  our  men  of  wealth.  They  will 
help  to  bring  nations  to  their  birth.  For  our  own  life's  sake,  we 
must  be  foreign  missionaries.  It  is  simply  a  question  of  the 
highest  unselfishness,  from  which  nothing  can  excuse  us.  It  is 
only  the  desire,  with  full  respect  and  reverence,  to  share  our  best 
with  all  peoples. 

Moreover,  the  Christian  knows  the  imperative  need  of  a  spiritual 
basis  for  any  large  life,  or  any  enduring  civilization.  He  is  quite 
ready  to  say,  with  one  of  the  most  modern  secular  editors  in  a 
very  modern  magazine:  "  And  the  chief  est  proof  of  Christ's 
divinity  is  not  in  the  miracles,  nor  in  the  signs  and  wonders,  but 
in  the  fact  that  he  knew  that  the  gearing  of  the  world  is  not  turned 
toward  the  millennium  by  money  or  by  the  power  that  comes 
through  wordly  success,  but  by  service  of  man  to  man,  without 
money,  and  without  the  power  that  money  can  buy."  "  And 
by  its  success  or  failure  as  a  soul-maker  must  our  civilization  stand 
in  divine  judgment,  and  we,  the  full  partners  in  this  civilization, 
must  stand  for  it."  And,  one  may  add,  if  we  are  so  to  believe  in 
our  civilization,  we  must  believe  in  the  infinite  and  eternal  pur- 
poses back  of  all  this  striving  of  ours,  that  may  make  conceivable 
for  us  great  rational  hopes,  and  may  make  our  lives  significant. 
Ultimately,  deep  meaning  cannot  be  given  to  life  without  a  faith 
essentially  religious. 

Believing,  then,  in  the  imperative  need  of  a  spiritual  basis  for 
life,  believing  in  the  inevitableness  of  unselfish  service,  and 
believing  that  we  have  that  needed  spiritual  basis  for  highest 
living  in  our  Christian  faith,  we  can  do  no  other  than  proclaim  it. 
Ultimately,  that  is,  back  of  all  foreign  missionary  endeavor,  lies 
the  conviction  that  in  the  good  news  of  Christ  we  have  the  supreme 


CHANGES   IN    MISSIONARY   PRACTICE.  175 

good  to  share  with  all  men.  The  final  missionary  motive  is,  thus, 
simply  the  sense  of  good  news  —  the  conviction  that  the  source 
of  our  own  best  and  highest  life  is  in  Christ;  that  he,  simply  by 
what  he  is,  has  made  it  possible  for  us  to  believe  in  God  as  father 
and  in  men  as  our  brothers,  and  in  the  eternal  life  as  a  reasonable 
hope;  that  in  him  we  find  the  key  to  man,  the  key  to  God,  and 
the  key  to  life,  "  for  the  secret  of  man/'  said  the  old  schoolman, 
"  is  the  secret  of  Messiah";  that  to  the  questions  of  man,  as  an 
incurably  religious  being,  Christ  alone  gives  completely  satisfying 
answers.  We  moderns  of  the  moderns  must  still  in  all  honesty 
say:  "  We  live  by  him,  and  he  must  be  glad  tidings  for  all  men 
in  just  the  proportion  he  is  our  glad  tidings.  We  can  never 
justify  ourselves  before  our  own  moral  judgment  while  we  refuse 
to  men  the  knowledge  of  him.'  He  alone  is  earth's  priceless  fact. 
And  just  here  lies,  thus,  for  the  most  modern  man,  with  clear 
vision  of  the  most  modern  convictions  and  ideals,  the  undying 
motive  of  foreign  missionary  enterprise.  This  is  our  need  of 
carrying  the  gospel  to  the  non-Christian  nations. 

Our  Attitude. 

And  as  respects  the  attitude  to  be  taken  toward  non-Christian 
religions,  the  best  present-day  missionary,  as  I  understand  it,  is 
glad,  even  anxious,  to  recognize  every  element  of  truth  in  the 
ethnic  faiths.  His  faith  in  the  fatherhood  of  God,  not  less  than 
a  belief  in  an  evolutionary  theory,  leads  him  to  look  for  such  ele- 
ments of  truth.  To  these  he  cannot  be  blind,  but  he  will  rather 
have  for  them  the  discerning  insight  of  love  to  God  and  belief 
in  his  love,  and  of  love  to  man.  His  attitude  toward  them  is 
thus  the  very  reverse  of  a  hard  and  unsympathetic  one,  for  he 
must  wish  to  believe  that  God  has  not  left  himself  without  witness 
among  any  people;  and  he  cannot  forget  that  man  is  an  essentially 
religious  being.  He  sees  evidences  of  at  least  partial  divine 
inspiration,  and  of  imperfect  seeking  and  groping  after  God, 
gleams  of  light  that  are  to  be  understood  and  rightly  valued  only 
in  the  full  light  of  Christianity.  He  recognizes  his  liability  to 
misinterpret  notions  that,  originally  noble,  may  have  been 
gradually  pulled  down  to  a  lower  plane,  like  the  mystery  of  life, 
which  plays  so  large  a  part  in  many  religions.  And  yet  he  does 
not  allow  himself  to  be  blind  to  the  real  facts.  He  understands 
that  metaphysics,  however  acute,  are  not  in  themselves  a  religious 
contribution.     And  he  distinguishes  between  the  original  sacred 


176  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

books  and  the  lower  popular  forms  that  the  religion  of  the  books 
has  taken.  And  he  recognizes,  as  he  must,  their  often  very  meager 
moral  results,  and  even  that  of  none  of  them,  except  Judaism,  can 
it  be  said  that  they  are  essentially  ethical.  As  one  seeking  to  win 
those  of  another  faith,  however,  he  feels  the  imperative  need  to 
seek  every  possible  point  of  contact;  and,  therefore,  he  cannot 
undervalue  the  revelation  of  the  best  in  the  national  mind  con- 
tained in  their  religions.  He  recognizes,  too,  that  the  great 
apologists  in  the  case  of  any  people  cannot  be  the  missionaries, 
but  must  come  ultimately  from  the  non-Christian  peoples  them- 
selves, who  can  alone  have  a  sure  instinct  for  that  which  is  most 
sacred  and  appeals  most  deeply  to  their  people.  And  at  every 
point  in  this  attitude  toward  the  non-Christian  religions  the 
conduct  of  the  truly  modern  missionary  is  increasingly  dominated 
by  a  sincere  reverence  for  the  liberty,  for  the  person,  for  the  ideals 
of  the  man  he  seeks  to  win. 

The   Methods. 

And  this  spirit  preeminently  is  intended  to  pervade,  finally, 
all  the  methods  which  the  modern  missionary  must  apply,  whether 
evangelistic,  pastoral  and  supervisional,  educational,  literary, 
medical,  or  industrial.  The  policy  of  centralization  means  to 
guard  sacredly  the  moral  initiative  and  manhood  of  the  convert. 
The  native  churches  are  called  out  at  every  point.  The  much 
larger  employment  of  women  makes  more  certain  Christ's  emanci- 
pation of  both  the  child  and  of  woman.  Interdenominational, 
yes,  and  international,  cooperation  are  already  at  work  on  the 
foreign  field,  almost  beyond  our  fondest  hopes  for  the  home 
churches.  The  strategic  increasing  enlistment  of  the  young  people 
and  the  growing  power  of  the  Missionary  Volunteer  Movement 
mean  the  giving  of  a  worthy  outlet  for  the  dynamic  of  youthful, 
self-forgetful  enthusiasm  in  the  world's  greatest  enterprise. 
Here  is  "  adolescence  "  indeed.  The  insistence  upon  mission 
study,  upon  pastoral  responsibility,  upon  the  policy  of  direct 
support  of  missionaries  by  individuals  and  churches,  and  upon  a 
careful  apportionment  plan,  is  sure  to  bring  home  to  each  Chris- 
tian the  intelligent  conviction  of  his  own  share  in  this  great  work, 
and  to  help  him  to  see  that  foreign  missions  is  no  side  issue,  no 
mere  addendum,  but  of  the  very  essence  of  Christianity. 

"For  the  love  of  Christ  eonstraineth  us." 


MEMORIAL   OF  ARMENIAN    EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.  177 


MEMORIAL  OF  THE    ARMENIAN    EVANGELICAL   ALLI- 
ANCE   OF  AMERICA  TO   THE    DIRECTORS   AND 
MEMBERS  OF   THE  AMERICAN  BOARD. 

Presented  by  Rev.  G.  M.  Manavian, 
The  Moderator  of  the  Alliance. 

Sirs,  The  Armenian  evangelical  alliance  of  America  sends  its 
greetings  and  congratulations  to  the  American  Board  which  is 
celebrating  the  centenary  of  its  organization.  Your  society  has 
sent  the  gospel  of  hope  and  life  to  the  nations  of  the  world 
through  a  century   of  marked   success. 

We,  the  evangelical  Armenians  of  America,  as  the  children  of  a 
historic  Christian  nation,  have  received  most  gratefully  the  noble 
services  of  your  great  society.  Your  heroic  and  self-sacrificing 
representatives,  in  their  efforts  to  Christianize  the  Turkish  empire, 
have  improved  their  opportunities  by  presenting  to  the  Arme- 
nians the  grandeur  and  the  inspiring  power  of  the  simple  gospel  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  the  world's  redemption. 

Greater  than  the  organization  of  evangelical  churches  among 
the  Armenians  have  been  the  fruits  of  the  services  of  the  mission- 
aries of  the  American  Board.  We  owe  them  the  new  zeal  for  the 
search  of  Christian  truth  in  the  spirit  of  the  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  centuries,  and  we  have  realized  through  their  work,  to 
a  greater  extent,  our  conception  of  personal  faith  and  religion. 
We  owe  them  the  inspiration  and  earnest  hope  and  desire  for  an 
evangelical  service  among  the  neighboring  races.  God  has  pre- 
served the  Armenian  nation  through  many  centuries  of  persecu- 
tion and  martyrdom.  Your  missionaries  have  been  helping  that 
nation  to  become  a  power  in  God's  hand  for  the  coming  and  estab- 
lishment of  his  kingdom  on  earth. 

Before  the  coming  of  the  missionaries  of  the  American  Board 
into  the  Turkish  empire,  the  Armenians  were  in  touch  only  with 
the  ideas  and  civilization  of  the  Latin  nations  of  Europe.  These 
had  long  established  their  ecclesiastical  and  educational  institu- 
tions among  the  Armenians.  Their  influence  was  great  and 
growing  until  the  coming  of  your  missionaries  put  the  Armenians 
in  touch  with  the  evangelical  Anglo-Saxon  races  of  the  world. 
The  educational   and  ecclesiastical  institutions  established   and 


178  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

sustained  by  the  American  Board  through  its  representatives  have 
been  a  substitute  for,  or  have  counteracted  the  influences  of,  the 
Latin  civilization.  This  is  appreciated  by  those  who  are  enter- 
taining great  hopes  for  the  Armenian  race. 

We  are  indebted  to  your  society  for  the  introduction  of  higher 
education  for  men  and  women.  Robert  College,  Euphrates 
College,  Central  Turkey  College,  Anatolia  College,  and  their 
affiliated  high  schools  and  primary  schools,  have  proved  the 
wisdom  of  the  founders  of  those  institutions.  Their  memories 
are  kept  sacred  among  the  Armenians,  and  their  services  more 
and  more  appreciated  by  the  Armenians  of  all  classes  and  faiths. 

In  the  hours  of  great  calamities  and  national  disasters,  as  during 
the  great  massacres  in  the  nineties  of  the  last  century,  your  noble 
missionaries  stood  by  the  Armenians,  comforted  them  and  dis- 
pensed relief  to  them,  and  when  the  time  had  come  to  reorganize 
the  educational  and  ecclesiastical  work,  so  ruthlessly  destroyed, 
they  gave  their  unselfish  support.  The  Armenians  have  become 
a  part  of  the  brotherhood  of  humanity  through  such  services, 
which  your  missionaries  have  rendered  in  the  past  and  are  render- 
ing today.  Such  considerations  have  made  us  grateful  to  your 
century-old  society,  for  which  we  feel  the  highest  esteem. 

God  bless  the  American  Board,  to  continue  its  benevolent 
activities  throughout  the  world  and  to  contribute  to  the  greater 
spiritual  and  intellectual  regeneration  of  the  Armenian  race, 
destined,  we  believe,  to  become  a  power  in  God's  hand  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  great  empires  in  which  the  Armenians  are 
now  living  as  a  subject  nation. 

Submitted  most  gratefully,  in  behalf  of  the  Armenian  evangelical 
alliance  of  America. 

.(Signed)     G.  M.  MANAVIAN,  Moderator. 
V.  BABASINIAN,  Secretary. 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  HAYSTACK  MEN.  179 


THE    MESSAGE    OF    THE    HAYSTACK    MEN   TO   THE 
CHURCH  OF  TODAY. 


Rev.  Henry  Evertson  Cobb,  D.D., 
Pastor  of  the  Collegiate  Church,  New  York. 

We  are  here  instinctively  to  receive  such  a  message.  The 
inspiration  of  that  prayer  meeting  under  the  haystack  is  still  with 
the  church.  In  the  first  year  of  my  ministry,  I  was  an  attendant 
at  the  general  synod  of  the  church  which  I  have  the  honor  to 
represent.  I  shall  never  forget  the  impassioned  appeal  made  by 
Professor  Lansing,  of  the  seminary  at  New  Brunswick,  in  behalf 
of  the  Mohammedans  among  whom  he  had  been  born,  an  appeal 
resulting  in  the  founding  of  the  Arabian  mission,  the  history  of 
which  you  all  know.  Two  young  men  had  presented  themselves 
to  be  sent  out  to  that  desolate  and  neglected  field,  Samuel  Zwemer 
and  Peter  Cantine.  In  introducing  them,  Professor  Lansing 
referred  to  the  consecrated  men  of  this  college  who  met  in  prayer 
for  the  neglected  heathen  world  a  hundred  years  ago.  Their 
prayers,  he  felt,  awaited  this  answer.  So  it  was  the  Haystack 
Prayer  Meeting,  you  see,  that  led  to  the  occupying  of  one  of  our 
latest  and  most  glorious  mission  fields  —  as  it  did,  of  course,  to 
those  older  fields  occupied  while  our  mission  board  and  yours  were 
one.  The  fervor  of  that  prayer  meeting  still  throbs  in  the  warm 
heart  of  missions.  As  an  incident  in  Christian  experience,  what  a 
little  thing  it  seemed  then  to  be!  As  a  power  in  the  history  of  the 
church,  what  a  mighty  thing  it  has  become! 

Forgotten  Essentials. 

The  Haystack  Prayer  Meeting  lives  in  order  to  recall  the  church 
to  a  forgotten  essential,  the  supreme  purpose  of  her  organization. 
This  is  what  those  young  men  recognized  in  their  spiritual  exalta- 
tion, and  the  vision  which  they  saw  on  the  mountain  top  of  prayer 
they  went  out  to  impart  to  the  churches.  The  single  supreme 
mission  for  which  the  church  was  organized,  and  for  which  she 
exists,  is  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature.  There  are  no 
geographical,  racial,  or  social  boundaries  limiting  her  scope  of 
activity  or  narrowing  her  responsibility.     He  who  was  lifted  upon 


ISO  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

the  cross  looked  past  Jerusalem,  beyond  the  boundary  of  Judea, 
across  Samaria,  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  and  the  last 
soul  dwelling  in  that  uttermost  bourne  he  left  as  a  legacy  to  the 
loving  care  of  those  whom  he  called  to  take  up  his  work.  It  is 
the  most  amazing  thing  that  the  church  should  still  be  so  dull 
and  unresponsive  to  the  tremendous  urgency  of  the  last  earthly 
word  of  her  risen  Lord,  that  she  should  have  read  her  Bible  all 
these  years  without  perceiving  that  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
of  her  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  the  idea  of  stewardship, 
of  apostleship,  is  emphasized. 

The  other  day,  in  reading  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  I  was 
impressed  with  the  significant  change  the  revised  version  makes 
in  the  rendering  of  the  passage  in  which  St.  Paul  asks  the  question: 
"  What  advantage  then  hath  the  Jew?  "  and  this  is  his  answer: 
"Much  every  way;  first  of  all,  that  they  were  intrusted  with  the 
oracles  of  God."  The  possession  of  the  Scriptures  was  a  sacred 
trust  to  the  Jews.  They  did  not  hold  them  for  themselves,  but 
in  fulfillment  of  the  promise  to  Abraham,  "In  thee  shall  all  the 
families  of  the  earth  be  blessed."  Are  we  not  heirs  with  them 
of  the  promises  to  Abraham?  Has  not  Israel's  responsibility 
descended  upon  us  along  with  Israel's  privilege?  We  too  hold 
the  Scriptures,  not  merely  as  a  precious  possession,  a  means  of 
light,  and  blessing  for  ourselves,  but  as  a  trust  for  the  whole 
world. 

Now  it  must  be  acknowledged  by  those  of  us  who  have  the  best 
opportunity  to  know  the  sentiment  of  the  churches  toward  foreign 
missions,  that  the  church  has  not  yet  come  to  the  place  where  she 
realizes  the  extent  of  her  responsibility  toward  the  heathen  world, 
or  accepts  without  question  this  view  of  her  mission.  Every  pastor 
can  count  on  his  fingers  the  men  in  his  church  who  have  the  cause 
at  heart.  Even  those  upon  whom  he  depends  for  counsel  and 
encouragement,  his  church  officers,  his  devoted  laymen,  his  Sun- 
day-school teachers,  are  often  unresponsive,  skeptical,  or  antago- 
nistic to  the  conception  that  this  lost  heathen  world  has  at 
least  as  great  a  claim  upon  the  interest  and  prayers  and  devoted 
effort  of  the  church  as  the  community  at  its  door,  or  perhaps  a 
greater  claim.  Aye,  how  many  of  us  who  are  pastors  of  churches, 
however  we  may  feel  the  constraint  of  that  vast  world  of  human 
need,  still  regard  the  missionary  activities  of  our  churches  as  a 
mere  incident  in  their  work  rather  than  as  essential  to  their  very 
existence,  a  side  issue  rather  than  a  supreme  motive,  and  content 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  HAYSTACK  MEN.  181 

ourselves  with  a  passing  reference  to  it  in  our  prayers,  an  occasional 
missionary  sermon,  an  annual  collection. 

Surely  there  is  a  place  today  for  the  impassioned  missionary 
fervor  of  a  Samuel  J.  Mills  to  recall  the  church  to  her  God- 
appointed  mission,  overlaid  as  it  has  been  by  so  many  lesser 
claims,  forgotten  in  the  press  of  so  many  minor  demands  upon  her 
time  and  money  and  prayer.  For  the  church,  in  order  to  attain 
the  high  purpose  of  her  Lord  and  Master  when  he  called  her  into 
being,  cannot  subordinate  this  work;  she  may  not  delegate  her 
missionary  activity  to  a  small  committee.  It  must  be  a  corporate 
activity,  not  an  activity  confined  to  individuals  here  and  there. 
A  missionary  enthusiasm  must  infuse  and  permeate  the  whole 
body  of  men  and  women  who  bear  the  name  of  Christ.  Oh,  I 
think  that  Christ  must  look  upon  that  little  band  of  women  in 
our  churches,  whose  hearts  he  has  opened  to  receive  the  gospel, 
and  who  meet  to  pray  and  plan  for  the  extension  of  his  kingdom 
—  perhaps  the  only  active  missionary  organization  in  many  of 
our  churches,  and  he  says,  "  Here  is  my  true  church;  here  is  the 
only  society  that  is  one  with  me  in  my  purpose  for  the  lost  world." 
Nay,  I  wonder  if  the  church  will  ever  realize  his  ideal  for  her, 
until  there  shall  be  found,  as  it  is  found  in  the  Moravian  church, 
the  great  body  of  its  apostles  in  the  mission  field,  the  small,  faith- 
ful band  at  home  working  and  praying  with  one  heart  and  mind 
for  those  who  have  the  supreme  privilege  of  being  at  the  forefront 
of  battle.  For  the  only  church  which  can  lay  claim  to  apostolic 
succession  is  that  in  which  the  apostolic  spirit  mightily  prevails. 

Confidence  and  Consecration. 

Another  message  from  these  young  men  of  the  haystack  to  the 
churches  today  is  that  the  church  must  be  imbued  with  absolute 
faith  in  the  perfect  feasibility  of  her  commission  and  in  its  com- 
plete and  speedy  triumph.  "  We  can  do  it  if  we  will,"  said 
Samuel  Mills.  This  faith  must  stand  solidly  on  the  fact  that  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the  author  and  finisher  of  it.  "Deits  vult," 
God  wills  it,  was  the  motto  the  Crusader  wrote  upon  his  banner. 
It  was  pure  loyalty  to  the  will  of  God  that  inspired  these  first 
missionaries,  the  faith  that  he  who  gave  the  command,  "  Go  ye 
into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,"  would 
certainly  fulfill  the  promise  he  attached  to  obedience,  "Lo,  I  am 
with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 


182  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

And  today,  as  we  review  this  first  century  of  American  missions, 
we  have  abundant  evidence  of  our  Lord's  faithfulness  to  his 
promise.  The  Lord  has  worked  with  these  apostles  of  his  church. 
His  presence  has  been  the  living  power  in  all  their  work.  It  is 
his  hand  that  has  manifestly  opened  the  fast-closed  doors,  and 
broken  down  the  high  walls  of  opposition,  until  there  is  not  one 
race  or  tribe  or  living  soul  today  that  is  not  accessible  to  the 
Christian  missionary.  His  spirit  has  wrought  in  men  of  darkest 
races  a  type  of  Christian  character  which  challenges  comparison 
with  any  in  England  and  America.  His  gospel  has  proved  itself 
in  experience  to  be  the  gospel  for  the  world.  What  abundant 
confidence  the  triumphs  of  the  gospel  give  us  today  for  the  com- 
plete and  speedy  coming  of  Christ's  kingdom  in  the  whole  world. 
"  We  can  do  it  if  we  will  "  may  well  be  the  rallying  cry  of  the 
church  as  it  begins  this  new  century  of  missionary  enterprise.  I 
have  seen  it  stated  authoritatively  that  at  the  present  rate  of 
progress  the  world  will  be  practically  Christian,  as  much  as 
America  is  today,  in  fifty  years,  and  that  if  the  church  would  give 
money  and  men  as  we  might,  in  twenty-five  years  India  and 
China  and  Africa  would  be  aglow  with  Christian  light.  If  this 
be  so,  it  is  possible  that  the  middle-aged  man  here  today  will  see 
the  world  converted  to  Christ  before  he  dies.  This  much  is  cer- 
tain, my  brothers,  "  We  can  do  it  if  we  will." 

But  to  this  end  there  is  needed  as  never  before  in  the  history  of 
missions,  not  simply  a  larger  outpouring  of  money  on  the  part  of 
the  home  churches,  but  a  consecration  of  the  best  men  in  our 
churches  to  the  actual  work.  When,  as  the  outcome  of  that  Hay- 
stack Prayer  Meeting,  a  secret  society  was  formed,  to  include  in 
its  membership  men  of  the  highest  endowment  for  the  foreign  field, 
it  was  recognized  that  the  difficulties  of  the  work  were  so  great  that 
only  men  of  the  highest  consecration  and  finest  equipment  were 
to  be  called  to  it.  One  of  the  men  enrolled  in  that  organization, 
after  it  was  extended  to  Andover  Seminary,  was  Adoniram  Judson, 
of  whom  Sir  Henry  Mortimer  Durand  said  at  the  Nashville  con- 
ference that  he  was  "  a  man  of  unconquerable  spirit,  entirely  free 
from  selfishness  and  from  all  the  meaner  passions,  and  withal  a 
man  of  so  great  ability  and  such  profound  acquaintance  with  the 
Burmese  character  as  to  have  been  of  priceless  assistance  to  the 
British  government  in  its  diplomatic  dealings  between  the  two 
nations,  —  a  man  as  greatly  honored  and  beloved  by  the  British 
soldier  as  he  was  by  the  Burmese  people." 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  HAYSTACK  MEN.  1  S3 

Such  men  are  needed  today  as  never  in  the  past  history  of 
missions.  There  is  a  place  for  them  such  as  never  existed  until 
this  time,  when  China,  Japan,  Siam,  and  other  Eastern  govern- 
ments are  recognizing  how  much  Christianity  has  had  to  do  with 
the  superiority  of  Western  civilizaton  and  are  coveting  the  secret 
for  themselves.  Our  boards  are  aware  of  the  critical  character  of 
this  stage  in  the  history  of  missions  and  meeting  it  in  a  more  care- 
ful selection  of  the  men  whom  they  send  out.  We  must  have  the 
best  men,  men  able  to  stand  before  kings,  men  who  shall  be  wise 
and  tactful  in  their  dealing  with  those  governments  which  are 
taking  an  increasing  interest  in  their  work  and  are  weighing  its 
motives  and  its  worth  with  a  new  seriousness.  And  so  the  foreign 
field  presses  its  attention  upon  the  best  men  of  our  colleges  and 
seminaries.  It  promises  a  place  of  the  greatest  usefulness  and 
power  to  the  physician,  the  teacher,  the  administrator,  the  man 
of  statesmanlike  insight  and  balance  and  judgment.  There  is  no 
place  where  a  man  can  be  of  greater  usefulness  to  his  fellow-men, 
where  his  life  will  count  for  more,  where  his  work  will  count  for  so 
much  in  the  history  of  the  world's  progress  as  in  the  foreign  mission 
field  today.     Think  of  what  Dr.  Verbeck  did  for  Japan. 

A  few  weeks  ago  I  was  talking  with  a  friend  of  mine  who  has 
been  forced  to  give  up  the  presidency  of  a  missionary  college  in 
India  and  return  to  this  country.  While  in  India  he  was  made 
the  mayor  of  the  city  in  which  his  college  is  situated,  and  a  few 
years  ago  he  received  the  Kaiser-I-Hind  medal  (one  of  the  two 
granted  that  year)  for  distinguished  service  to  the  government 
and  people  of  India.  He  was  called,  on  his  return,  to  an  impor- 
tant chair  in  one  of  our  historic  colleges.  But  he  said  to  me, 
"  There  is  no  comparison  between  the  scope  and  outlook  of  edu- 
cational work  in  India  and  that  in  this  country.  There  the  horizon 
is  boundless,  the  results  incalculable.''  Men  of  the  colleges,  this 
work  calls  for  the  best  of  you;  you  can  find  no  place  where  you 
may  invest  your  talent  with  such  marvelous  returns.  Men  of 
brain  and  energy  and  genius,  the  work  wants  you  to  put  your 
best  in  all  humility  and  unselfishness  and  loyalty  at  the  service  of 
Christ. 

Need  of  Prayer. 

There  is  one  word  more  in  this  message  from  the  young  men 
whose  memory  calls  us  here  today.  It  is  the  reminder  that  the 
work  of  foreign  missions  began  in  prayer  and  that  it  can  only  live 


184  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

by  prayer.  It  calls  the  churches,  pastors,  and  people  to  renewed 
and  earnest  prayer  for  the  speedy  coming  of  Christ's  kingdom  on 
earth.  All  machinery  is  as  nothing  without  this,  —  the  spread  of 
missionary  information,  the  securing  of  endowment,  the  labors 
of  our  secretaries.  Our  forces  upon  the  field  are  crippled  unless 
behind  them  are  the  prayers  of  a  united  church.  "  Brethren, 
pray  for  us,"  was  the  impassioned  appeal  of  the  great  missionary 
St.  Paul  to  the  church,  and  it  is  the  one  fervent  appeal  of  our 
missionaries  upon  the  foreign  field  today  —  an  appeal  for  organized 
intercession  in  their  behalf.  I  once  heard  the  pastor  of  a  church, 
pausing  abruptly  in  his  prayer,  say,  "  And  now,  Lord,  we  make 
our  supplication  for  those  for  whom  there  are  so  few  to  pray," 
and  then  went  on  to  pray,  not  for  the  friendless  or  the  outcast  in 
his  great  city,  but  for  the  missionaries.  What  a  wrong  we  do  them 
when  we  send  them  out  to  the  forefront  of  the  battle  and  leave 
them  unsupported  by  the  spiritual  forces  wThich  alone  can  bring 
them  victory.  God  forgive  our  neglect  of  this  strongest  weapon 
he  has  put  into  our  hands  for  the  redemption  of  the  world.  We 
need,  my  brethren,  to  rise  to  the  higher  conception  of  prayer,  to 
regard  it  not  as  a  means  of  changing  the  ways  of  God,  but  as  a 
means  of  helping  us  understand  the  purpose  of  God  and  fulfilling 
it.  For  as  we  see  eye  to  eye  with  God,  and  the  vision  comes  to  us 
of  his  love  for  men,  and  the  awful  price  paid  on  Calvary  for  the 
redemption  of  men,  you  and  I  must  recognize  how  little  we  have 
been  doing  to  realize  his  purpose  and  what  infinitely  greater  things 
it  is  possible  for  us  to  do. 

In  one  of  his  addresses,  Dr.  Robertson  Nicoll  recalls  the  state- 
ment of  Professor  Guyot  that  there  are  three  periods  in  the  life 
of  every  plant,  one  very  slow,  another  much  more  rapid,  and  the 
next  of  a  whirling  rapidity. 

First  is  growth  by  the  root,  obscure,  hidden,  and  very  slow. 
Then  is  growth  by  the  stem,  much  faster.  Last  is  growth  by  the 
flower  and  the  fruit,  which  rushes.  The  work  of  world  evangeli- 
zation has  grown  by  the  root.  The  long  periods  of  delay  are  past. 
It  is  now  growing  by  the  stem,  and  making  haste.  We  are  on  the 
eve  of  that  last  period,  when  it  shall  blossom  and  bring  forth  fruit 
to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  joy  of  man.  God  speed  it  in  his  day. 
Let  us  say  with  Henry  Martyn,  "  I  have  hitherto  lived  to  little 
purpose,  more  like  a  clod  than  a.  servant  of  Christ;  now  let  me 
burn  out  for  God." 


THE    KIND    OF   YOUNG    MEN    AND    WOMEN    NEEDED.  185 


THE  KIND  OF  YOUNG  MEN  AND  WOMEN  NEEDED  FOR 
THE  MISSION  FIELD. 

Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D., 
President  of  the  United  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor. 

•  The  call  for  young  men  and  women  who  shall  give  themselves 
to  the  upbuilding  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in  all  the  world  was  never 
louder  or  more  imperative  than  it  is  today.  It  will  never  grow  less 
insistent,  until  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  become  the  kingdoms 
of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ. 

But  while  the  call  is  loud  and  persistent,  it  is  not  extended  to 
all.  The  self-indulgent  are  not  wanted.  There  is  no  place  for  the 
merely  romantic  novelty  seeker.  Those  who  have  only  intel- 
lectual aspirations  and  who  chiefly  wish  to  enlarge  their  mental 
horizon,  or  that  of  those  to  whom  they  are  sent,  are  not  needed. 
There  is  a  great  field  for  the  educational  missionary,  but  not 
for  the  merely  educational  missionary  who  cares  for  nothing  but 
education.  The  man  who  has  no  gospel  but  the  gospel  of  good 
works,  no  message  but  that  of  the  gradual  evolution  of  the  race, 
no  divinity  to  inspire  him  but  the  divinity  of  human  nature,  would 
much  better  stay  at  home. 

But  for  those  with  the  highest  intellectual  and  social  gifts,  who, 
at  the  same  time,  love  the  Lord  their  God  with  all  their  mind  and 
soul  and  strength  and  their  neighbors  as  themselves,  who  are 
self-sacrificing  and  courageous,  who  count  not  their  lives  dear 
unto  them,  who  are  willing  to  lose  their  lives  that  they  may  find 
them  again,  there  is  no  such  attractive  and  rewarding  work  today 
as  that  found  on  the  foreign  mission  field. 

Are  these  high  and  hard  requirements?  They  are  no  higher 
and  harder  than  our  Lord  himself  laid  down  for  all  his  disciples, 
for  he  commanded  them  to  put  his  cause  and  his  work  before 
father  and  mother,  and  house  and  lands,  yea,  and  their  own  lives 
also.  No  church  that  does  not  present  this  supreme  motive,  that 
does  not  appeal  to  this  heroic  element,  will  ever  secure  the  right 
missionaries  or  will  ever  imbue  its  young  people  with  the  mission- 
ary spirit. 

Thank  God,  this  is  the  appeal  that  the  American  Board  has 
made,  from  the  day  that  Samuel  J.  Mills  and  his  companions  met 


186  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

under  the  haystack  at  Williamstown  to  the  present  day.  How 
nobly  have  the  young  people  of  our  constituency  responded  to 
this  heroic  note!  Let  Horace  Pitkin  and  Mary  Morrill,  of  PaoTing 
Fu  tell,  and  the  scores  of  brave  men  and  women,  of  whom  the 
world  was  not  worthy. 

"  They  gained  the  steep  ascent  of  heaven 
Thro'  peril,  toil  and  pain; 
O  God,  to  us  may  grace  be  given 
To  follow  in  their  tram." 

The  young  man  or  woman  whom  the  missionary  cause  needs 
today  must  also  be  gifted  with  an  unconquerable  optimism,  born 
of  belief  in  the  conquering  principles  and  life  of  Christ.  Does  the 
conversion  of  the  heathen  world  look  hopeless?  There  is  no  such 
word  in  the  true  missionary's  vocabulary.  From  a  human  stand- 
point it  was  far  more  hopeless  a  hundred  years  ago  when  those 
young  men  of  Williamstown  met  to  pray  for  it.  But  their 
optimism  was  born  of  a  conquering  faith  that  believed,  beyond 
a  peradventure,  that  He  whose  right  it  was  should  reign,  and  that 
at  last  every  nation  and  kindred  and  people  and  tongue  should 
ascribe  honor  to  Him  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne  and  to  the 
Lamb  forever  and  ever. 


VISION    OF    THE    HAYSTACK    REALIZED.  187 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  HAYSTACK  REALIZED. 

Mr.  John  R.  Mott, 

Chairman  of  the  Executive   Committee   of  the  Student   Volunteer 

Movement,  and  General  Secretary  of  the  World's  Student 

Christian  Federation. 

I  have  been  asked  to  speak  upon  "  The  Vision  of  the 
Haystack  Band  Realized  by  Students  of  this  Generation." 
What  was  the  vision  of  the  Haystack  Band?  Without  doubt, 
that  vision  included  an  intercollegiate  missionary  movement. 
The  little  band  of  men  at  Williams  not  only  built  up  a  most  effi- 
cient Christian  society  known  as  the  "  Society  of  Brethren  "  in 
Williams  College,  but  they  also,  from  almost  the  beginning,  had 
the  idea  of  stimulating  the  formation  of  similar  societies  in  other 
colleges  of  the  New  England  and  Middle  Atlantic  states.  They 
bestirred  themselves  to  accomplish  this  desired  end.  They  insti- 
tuted correspondence  with  different  colleges.  They  made  visits 
to  some  of  the  colleges.  Some  of  us  have  read  about  the  visit 
a  deputation  made  to  Union  College  in  New  York  state.  They 
did  more  than  that  to  realize  their  vision.  Two  of  the  men  at  least 
left  Williams  College  and  spent  the  better  part  of  a  year  at  other 
colleges,  one  going  to  Middlebury  and  another  to  Yale.  As  a 
result  of  the  employment  of  these  and  other  methods,  their 
example  and  their  earnest  advocacy  led  to  the  formation  of 
missionary  or  Christian  societies  in  a  few  other  colleges, —  just 
how  many  no  one  knows  exactly.  Not  only  did  they  lead  to  the 
forming  of  a  few  comparatively  weak  student  organizations,  but 
they  also  did  much  to  kindle  missionary  fires  in  the  lives  of  the 
students  with  whom  they  came  in  contact. 

After  one  has  said  this  he  has  indicated  —  in  bare  outline  at 
least  —  all  that  they  were  able  in  those  days  to  accomplish,  in 
the  way  of  realizing  the  vision  of  an  intercollegiate  missionary 
movement.  Why  was  it  in  those  days  they  could  not  accomplish 
more?  Remember  that  the  number  of  colleges  then  was  small; 
that  the  colleges  then  were  isolated;  that  the  means  of  communi- 
cation were  very  poor  compared  with  what  we  have  in  these  days. 
Keep  in  mind  that  in  those  days  they  had  nothing  corresponding 
to  what  we  call  the  intercollegiate  consciousness  as  manifested 


188  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

in  intercollegiate  athletic  sports,  in  intercollegiate  fraternities, 
and  debates  and  oratorical  contests  between  the  colleges.  More- 
over, the  state  of  spiritual  life  was  low  in  the  colleges  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  student  life  was  not  highty 
organized  even  in  individual  colleges.  When  these  facts  are  kept 
in  view  it  is  nothing  less  than  wonderful  that  that  band  of  con- 
secrated men  achieved  what  they  did.  But  they  fell  far  short  of 
realizing  their  own  vision,  if  we  may  trust  what  we  read  in  their 
letters  as  to  their  desires. 

Students'  Organizations. 

It  has  been  left  to  the  students  of  the  present  generation  to 
realize  their  vision.  The  students  of  our  day  have  built  up  a 
great  intercollegiate  organization  which  numbers  not  less  than 
thirteen  hundred  Christian  organizations  among  men  students  and 
women  students  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  alone.  It  has 
gathered  a  membership  of  scores  of  thousands  —  not  less  than 
seventy  thousand.  It  is  cultivating  the  whole  range  of  moral  and 
religious  life  among  students  so  far  as  that  is  carried  on  by 
voluntary  agencies.  The  colleges  have  been  bound  more  and 
more  closely  together  each  year.  As  a  result  we  find  that  the 
vision  of  the  Haystack  Band  is  more  than  realized  among  the 
colleges  and  theological  seminaries  of  North  America  alone. 
What  makes  this  point  more  significant  is  the  fact  that  there  is  a 
similar  national  Christian  student  movement  among  the  univer- 
sities and  colleges  of  the  British  Isles;  another  in  the  German 
universities;  another  binding  together  the  societies  of  Christian 
students  in  France,  Switzerland,  Belgium,  and  Holland;  still 
another  grouping  the  Christian  organizations  of  university  men 
and  women  in  Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Finland;  a  most 
efficient  society  of  students  and  school  boys  and  scholars  in  South 
Africa,  embracing  both  British  and  Dutch  and  native  South 
African;  an  organization  that  includes  virtually  all  the  colleges 
of  Australia,  Tasmania,  and  New  Zealand,  and  would  put  to 
shame  some  of  those  in  the  Old  World;  strong  national  student 
organizations  in  India,  Ceylon,  China,  Japan,  and  the  Levant,  and 
scattered  societies  in  parts  of  Africa  other  than  South  Africa,  and 
in  South  America  and  the  Pacific  Island  world.  Then  remember 
that  the  students  of  this  generation  have  not  only  perfected  these 
societies  in  the  individual  colleges,  and  in  the  nations  and  groups 


VISION   OF   THE    HAYSTACK   REALIZED.  189 

of  nations,  but  they  have  formed  within  a  little  over  a  decade 
what  is  known  as  the  World's  Christian  Student  Federation,  which 
federates  these  various  national  and  international  societies  of 
students,  which  has  branches  in  two  thousand  separate  schools  and 
colleges,  which  embraces  a  membership  of  one  hundred  and  ten 
thousand  students  and  professors.  One  of  the  three  great 
objects  of  this  world-wide  combination  of  students  is  the  mis- 
sionary object,  —  and  this  is  true  of  the  local  societies,  of  the  na- 
t  ional  societies,  and  of  the  world  society,  —  the  leading  of  students 
to  make  their  lives  count  most  for  the  evangelization  of  the  world 
at  home  and  abroad.  In  view  of  all  these  facts  am  I  not  right  in 
saving  that  the  students  of  this  generation  have  marvelously 
realized  the  vision  of  the  Haystack  Band? 

"  One  might  illustrate  this  by  a  contrast.  There  were  five 
men  there  at  the  Haystack  Prayer  Meeting.  The  other  day,  just 
before  I  started  on  my  last  journey  to  the  southern  hemisphere,  I 
attended  a  convention  in  Nashville  of  the  Student  Volunteer 
Movement,  — -  the  missionary  development  of  this  great  world- 
wide federation  in  North  America  alone,  —  and  how  many  were 
there  gathering  around  the  missionary  idea  for  prayer  and  dis- 
cussion? Not  a  little  group  of  five,  but  a  vast  auditorium  filled 
with  about  five  thousand,  of  whom  three  thousand  were  students, 
and,  by  the  way,  we  had  had  to  turn  back  over  two  thousand  stu- 
dents who  had  paid  their  registration  fees  and  were  wishing' to 
come.  Five  thousand  students,  including  those  who  wanted  to 
come,  or  five  thousand  if  you  include  those  that  gathered  with 
them,  as  contrasted  with  the  five  men  at  the  Haystack  Prayer 
Meeting.  And  those  Williams  students  had  to  do  their  work  in 
secret.  The  great  Nashville  convention  arrested  the  attention  of 
the  world.  The  first  intelligence  I  received,  on  reaching  South 
Africa  some  weeks  after,  was  concerning  the  influence  that  that 
convention  had  had  in  that  part  of  the  world.  When  I  went  over 
to  South  America,  I  did  not  visit  a  part  of  what  we  call  that 
neglected  continent  where  I  did  not  find  the  impress  of  the  Nash- 
ville convention.  In  the  days  of  the  Williams  Haystack  Band 
the  cause  of  missions  did  not  have  many  influential  advocates. 
The  students  had  to  look  far  and  wide  to  find  many  who  at  first 
sympathized  with  their  great  vision.  At  Nashville  we  had  sitting 
with  us  in  council  the  official  representatives  of  over  seventy 
missionary  societies  of  North  America,  nearly  two  hundred 
foreign  missionaries  from  thirty  nations,  the  editors  of  the  reli- 


190  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

gious  press,  the  leaders  of  the  great  movements  among  the  youth 
of  our  different  denominations  as  well  as  the  interdenominational 
young  people's  societies,  sitting  there  together  and  laying  common 
plans  for  the  evangelization  of  the  world  in  our  day.  And  might 
I  not  draw  another  contrast?  When  we  remember  that  it  used 
to  take  days  in  the  period  of  the  Williams  Haystack  Band  to  go 
from  Williams  College  to  Princeton,  for  example,  and,  therefore, 
that  they  could  not  hold  any  student  conferences  and  conventions 
in  those  days,  think  what  it  means  that  there  will  assemble  in 
Tokyo,  Japan,  the  first  week  of  next  April,  the  conference  of  the 
World's  Student  Christian  Federation.  It  will  be  the  first  world's 
conference,  either  secular  or  religious,  ever  held  in  Asia,  and  it 
will  be  a  notable  event.  Usually  these  world's  conferences  are 
limited  to  one  hundred  select  delegates,  that  is,  the  national 
leaders  in  work  among  students,  but  it  has  been  decided  that 
we  shall  yield  to  the  pressure  of  the  Orient  and  increase  the 
number  to  five  hundred  —  we  could  easily  make  it  fifteen  hundred. 
We  shall  have  present  in  Tokyo  the  flower  of  the  Asiatic  church. 
A  special  committee  has  been  appointed  to  prepare  a  list  of  the 
two  hundred  and  seventy-five  leading  Christians  of  Japan  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  educated  classes,  and  these  are  to  be  there; 
the  seventy  leading  Christians  of  China;  the  twenty  leading 
Christians  of  Korea;  not  less  than  six  of  those  in  the  forefront 
among  the  native  Christians  of  India;  representatives  from  the 
natives  of  Ceylon,  and  Siam,  and  the  Southern  Pacific.  With 
these  Oriental  delegates  —  constituting,  I  repeat  it,  the  flower 
of  the  Asiatic  church  —  will  meet  the  leaders  in  the  aggressive 
forces  of  Christianity  among  the  educated  classes  from  practically 
every  nation  of  Europe,  from  Australasia,  South  Africa,  and  North 
America,  and  even  South  America,  and  they  will  lay  plans  together 
for  the  evangelization  of  the  students  of  the  world,  for  building 
them  up  in  faith  and  character,  for  leading  them  to  place  their 
lives  where  they  will  be  most  effective  in  accomplishing  the 
world's  evangelization.  I  think  a  mere  statement  like  this  shows 
that  that  part  of  the  vision  of  the  Williams  Haystack  Band  is 
being  realized  by  students  of  this  generation. 

Student  Volunteers. 

The  Williams  Haystack  Band  had  a  vision  likewise  of  a  goodly 
number  of  the  strongest  Christian  students  of  North  America  trans- 
planted to  fields  of  greatest  need  in  the  non-Christian  world. 


VISION    OF   THE    BAYSTACK    REALIZED.  191 

They  expressed  their  desire  in  the  striking  clause  of  their  constitu- 
tion giving  the  object  of  the  Society  of  Brethren  in  this  language: 
"  To  effect  in  the  persons  of  its  members  a  mission  or  missions  to 
the  heathen."  I  do  not  know  a  clause  that  some  of  our  student 
volunteer  bands  in  these  days  could  include  to  greater  advantage 
in  their  constitution  to  guide  them  in  their  work,  because  this 
embodies  the  real  spirit  of  the  student  movement.  Not  simply 
to  agitate  for  missions,  not  simply  to  feel  deeply  upon  the  subject 
of  missions,  not  simply  to  make  resolutions  about  missions,  but 
to  go  in  the  persons  of  our  members  to  those  fields  and  to  stay 
there  for  life!  One  of  the  Haystack  Band  was  able  to  accomplish 
this  purpose.  I  had  the  inspiration  of  standing  by  his  grave  in 
North  Ceylon.  I  refer  to  Richards.  Three  of  the  members  of  the 
band  became  home  missionaries,  and  in  that  stage  of  the  develop- 
ment who  shall  say  that  they  did  not  most  largely  accomplish  the 
full  purpose  they  had  in  view?  One  of  them  had  to  give  up  his 
plan  for  entering  the  ministry  because  of  a  break  in  his  health. 
Within  a  few  years,  their  example,  their  consecration,  and  the 
plans  they  set  in  motion  resulted  in  a  number  of  other  students 
of  the  New  England  and  other  eastern  states  actually  going  out 
as  missionaries.  But  they  were  not  able  to  accomplish  their 
vision  in  any  extensive  way,  that  is,  of  distributing  a  large  number 
of  students  over  the  great  spaces  of  the  non-Christian  world. 
Read  the  correspondence  of  those  men.  Read  what  is  said  about 
their  discussions,  and  you  will  see  that  they  had  plans  which 
embodied  the  sending  out  of  large  numbers  to  these  foreign  fields 
that  were  not  evangelized. 

The  conditions  were  unfavorable  for  realizing  their  vision.  At 
that  time  there  was  no  American  foreign  missionary  society  that 
actually  had  missions  in  the  non-Christian  world;  there  were 
some  so-called  missionary  societies.  Moreover,  there  was  a  lack 
of  the  missionary  spirit  in  the  rank  and  file  of  the  churches.  What 
was  more  serious,  the  leaders  of  the  churches,,  generally  speaking, 
did  not  have  the  missionary  vision.  With  a  very  few  exceptions 
they  were  not  missionary  statesmen,  although  there  were  some 
splendid  exceptions.  For  reasons  like  these,  it  was  not  possible 
to  realize  extensively  their  vision  of  having  a  large  number  of 
American  students  distributed  throughout  the  non-Christian 
world.  It  was  left  to  the  students  of  this  generation  likewise  to 
fulfill  that  vision.  Imagine  Samuel  Mills,  Richards,  Loomis, 
Robbins,  and  Green  making  a  visit  to  the  office  of  the  Student 


1 


192  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

Volunteer  Movement  in  New  York  City,  and  the  office  of  that 
movement  in  London,  and  taking  the  records  of  this  movement  and 
rinding  that  from  these  two  branches  of  the  Volunteer  Movement 
alone  within  twenty  years  there  have  gone  out  from  colleges  and 
theological  seminaries  of  the  United  States,  Canada,  and  Great 
Britain,  not  a  few  scores,  but  forty-five  hundred  students  as  foreign 
missionaries.  Add  to  that  the  thousands  of  other  missionaries 
of  the  British  Isles  and  North  America  who  were  formerly  stu- 
dents, but  not  members  of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement, 
either  because  it  had  not  been  organized  in  colleges  where  they 
studied,  or  for  other  reasons,  and  I  think  we  see  again  that  the 
students  of  this  generation  have  abundantly  realized  the  vision  of 
the  Haystack  Band.  We  have  had  more  college  men  and  women 
in  North  America  volunteer  for  foreign  missions  since  the  Nash- 
ville convention  last  February  than  actually  went  out  to  the 
foreign  field  in  the  first  twenty-five  years  after  the  Haystack 
Prayer  Meeting. 

Missionary  Movements. 

The  Haystack  Band  had  a  further  vision.  They  had  a 
vision  of  a  missionary  society  that  would  make  possible  the  send- 
ing out  of  the  students  who  might  decide  to  become  missionaries. 
From  the  beginning  they  emphasized  the  principle  of  the  canti- 
lever bridge,  that  if  we  are  to  push  one  arm  out  into  India  and 
Africa  and  the  Turkish  empire,  we  must  push  out  equally  an  arm 
into  the  interest  and  intelligence  and  convictions  and  sacrifices 
and  prayers  of  Christians  at  home.  In  other  words,  there  must 
be  an  adequate  base  to  sustain  the  world-wide  war.  They  gave 
themselves  to  the  accomplishing  of  their  desire  with  an  adroitness 
and  with  a  thoroughness  that  would  stimulate  any  students  who 
study  the  records  even  in  our  day.  What  did  they  do?  They  not 
only  visited  the  colleges  and  seminaries  and  corresponded  with 
them,  but  they  began  a  process  of  cultivation  with  individual  min- 
isters. They  made  visits  to  the  homes  of  these  ministers.  Some 
of  them  even  spent  the  long  vacation  where  they  could  bring  their 
influence  to  bear  most  largely  upon  certain  ministers  whom  they 
wished  to  influence.  As  a  result  of  what  they  did  in  writing  and 
speaking,  —  and,  by  the  way,  they  printed  two  most  effective 
addresses  that  ought  to  be  revived  and  used  in  these  days,  —  as  a 
result  of  these  means  they  constituted,  by  common  consent,  the 
principal  among  different  causes  that  led  to  the  formation  of  this 


VISION    OF   THE    HAYSTACK    REALIZED.  193 

great  American  Board  under  whose  auspicies  we  meet;  and,  as  is 
equally  well  known,  this  society,  by  its  example  and  by  its  sug- 
gestion, has  led  to  the  formation,  directly  or  indirectly,  of  other 
missionary  boards,  until  today  we  have  literally  scores  of  mis- 
sionary societies  in  the  United  States  and  Canada.  We  need  one 
more,  and  we  need  that  very  badly,  —  a  society  which  will  have  as 
its  object  the  prevention  of  the  formation  of  any  more  missionary 
organizations. 

When  you  think  of  what  we  have  in  the  way  of  organizations 
today,  in  contrast  with  what  this  little  Williams  band  saw  in  their 
vision,  I  see  a  striking  contrast.  And  yet  they  did  accomplish 
that  vision.  They  were  not  concerned  about  many  societies.  I 
sometimes  wish  their  plan  might  have  prevailed  of  preserving  one 
great  interdenominational  society,  and  yet  possibly  we  have  been 
led  by  a  wiser  providence  in  laying  this  burden  on  the  various 
denominations.  But  we  are  swinging  back  to  the  time  when,  by 
some  simple  plan  of  federation,  we  may  realize  more  fully  the  great 
vision  they  had  by  keeping  the  various  forces  of  the  church  in 
heart-to-heart  touch. 

We  have  helped,  however,  as  a  generation,  in  realizing  their 
vision,  even  with  reference  to  the  home  base.  When  I  think  of 
what  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement  is  doing  for  the  home  field 
I  feel  that  the  Williams  College  men  of  the  Haystack  Band  would 
rejoice  were  they  with  us.  The  Volunteer  Movement  is  quite  as 
much  concerned  with  making  every  young  man  who  is  to  be  a 
minister  at  home,  and  every  young  man  and  young  woman  w7ho 
is  to  be  a  lay-worker  at  home,  a  true  missionary  in  spirit  as  it  is 
concerned  in  getting  recruits  for  the  foreign  field.  This  world 
will  never  be  evangelized  until  we  have  the  same  consecration 
and  enthusiasm  of  a  missionary  character  among  the  leaders  of 
the  aggressive  forces  of  Christianity  at  home  which  is  exemplified 
in  those  who  go  to  lead  the  forces  at  the  front.  We  have  not 
only  the  Volunteer  Movement,  but  we  have  that  supplemen- 
tary movement,  the  Young  People's  Missionary  Movement. 
In  my  judgment,  it  is  a  most  providential  and  significant  move- 
ment. The  Volunteer  Movement  exists  to  raise  up  the  leaders 
who  are  to  go  to  the  front  and  to  take  charge  of  the  churches  at 
home  as  pastors,  filled  with  the  missionary  vision.  The  Young 
People's  Missionary  Movement  exists  to  educate  the  millions  of 
members  in  Young  People's  societies  and  Sunday-schools  that 
they  may  flood  the  churches  with  the  missionary  spirit.     These 


194  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

two  great  agencies,  working  under  the  leadership  of  the  mission- 
ary societies,  and  related  with  unswerving  loyalty  to  the  various 
evangelical  churches,  constitute  two  agencies  which  God  is  going 
to  use  in  developing  a  base  which  will  make  possible  the  projec- 
tion of  this  enlarging  number  of  student  volunteers. 

World  Evangelization. 

The  Williams  Haystack  Band  had  a  vision  of  the  world 
speedily  evangelized.  It  is  impossible  to  read  what  has  been 
preserved  of  the  writings  of  that  band  without  having  one's  heart 
deepty  stirred  with  the  idea  that  they  were  under  pressure  to  get 
this  task  done  as  quickly  as  possible.  There  is  an  element  of 
immediacy,  of  urgency,  —  the  feeling  that  "  the  night  cometh 
when  no  man  can  work,"  —  about  the  language  and  the  actions  and 
the  spirit  and  the  very  prayers  of  those  men,  that  kindles  our 
hearts.  I  get  precisely  the  same  impression  when  I  turn  to  read 
the  pages  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  certain  sections  of  the 
Pauline  Epistles.  If  ever  I  am  tempted  to  be  sluggish  and  to 
lose  my  sense  of  pressure  about  the  shortness  of  the  time,  I  only 
need  to  read  aloud  to  myself,  for  example,  the  first  eight  chapters 
of  the  book  of  the  Acts.  It  is  the  same  spirit  that  seemed  to  vi- 
brate in  the  Haystack  Band.  Oh,  how  they  longed  to  have  this 
world  flooded  with  the  full  light  of  Christ  in  their  day !  They  com- 
municated their  spirit  not  only  to  their  own  society,  but  to  others. 
You  will  find  it  beating  through  that  marvelous  address  sent  back 
by  Samuel  Newell  and  Gordon  Hall.  I  wish  that  the  American 
Board  could  reprint  that  appeal  and  send  it  far  and  wide  through 
the  colleges  and  theological  seminaries  and  out  among  the  Young 
People's  societies.  There  may  seem  to  be  some  crude  arguments 
in  it.  There  may  be  a  quaint  way  of  putting  some  things,  an 
old-fashioned  way  of  stating  some  of  their  positions;  but  the  fires 
of  God  are  still  burning  in  that  wonderful  appeal. 

There  was  also  another  appeal  which  the  American  Board 
printed  and  which  has  been  retired  a  long  time.  Possibly  the 
Board  might  not  want  to  reprint  that  appeal,  as  I  remember  some 
parts  of  it,  and  yet  I  wish  there  might  be  at  least  an  expurgated 
edition.  I  refer  to  the  appeal  that  went  forth  from  the  mission- 
aries of  the  Sandwich  Islands  in  1836  entitled,  "  The  Duty  of 
Christians  to  Evangelize  the  World  in  this  Generation"  —  that 
is,  in  their  generation.  Some  people  seem  to  think  that  that  idea 
was  not  heard  of  until  somewhat  recently.     I  found  a  copy  of  that 


VISION    OF   THE    HAYSTACK   REALIZED.  195 

old  appeal  in  the  library  in  Oberlin  when  I  was  making  certain 
investigations  there.  I  understand  there  is  another  copy  in  the 
library  of  the  American  Board,  and  no  doubt  there  are  others  in 
existence.  I  hope  the  day  will  not  be  far  distant  when  we  shall 
have,  at  least,  the  larger  part  of  that  appeal  from  the  Hawaiian 
Islands  reprinted,  as  well  as  the  appeal  of  Hall  and  Newell.  This 
little  band  at  Williams  College  had  the  spirit  of  immediacy,  the 
spirit  of  wanting  the  world  evangelized  quickly.  Later,  Andover 
had  the  same  spirit.  Here  and  there  were  scattered  individuals 
whose  souls  were  burning  with  the  vision,  but  it  had  not  become 
widespread.  It  was  impossible  for  those  in  that  generation  to 
realize  the  vision.  The  students  of  this  generation  constitute 
the  first  generation  of  students  who  in  any  large  numbers  have 
given  themselves  to  realize  the  vision.  The  Student  Volunteer 
Movement  led  off  in  adopting  as  its  watchword  in  the  year  1888, 
"  The  evangelization  of  the  world  in  this  generation."  It  was  first 
met  with  a  storm  of  criticism.  It  had  to  fight  its  way  step  by 
step,  until  I  am  glad  to  say  tonight  that  it  has  been  adopted  by 
other  student  movements  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  and  not 
a  few  of  the  foremost  missionary  societies  in  the  world  have  offi- 
cially endorsed  it  as  an  ideal  to  be  kept  in  mind  and  to  be  realized. 
The  most  conservative  church  in  the  United  States,  probably,  the 
United  Presbyterian  Church,  has  adopted  the  plan  of  evangelizing 
that  part  of  the  non-Christian  world  for  which  they  feel  themselves 
responsible,  —  and  it  is  a  large  part  when  we  consider  the  numbers 
in  that  church,  —  in  their  generation,  that  is,  in  this  generation. 
Who  believe  in  this  watchword  most  strongly?  You  will  be  sur- 
prised at  my  answer.  Not  simply  youthful  enthusiasts  in  the 
colleges  whom  I  meet  in  my  travels  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic, 
but  as  I  have  gone  up  and  down  Asia,  Africa,  the  Pacific  Island 
world,  and  South  America  I  have  been  amazed  —  and  yet  no 
longer  am  I  amazed  —  to  find  that  the  missionaries,  the  people 
face  to  face  with  the  difficulties,  who  know  best  what  is  involved 
in  evangelizing  the  world  in  a  generation,  are  those  who  hold  most 
tenaciously  to  this  idea.  You  will  hear  a  masterly  address  in  this 
convention  of  the  American  Board  by  a  man  who  stands  on  the 
threshold  of  the  most  difficult  field  —  the  Mohammedan  field  — 
of  the  non-Christian  world.  It  is  men  like  that,  I  find,  who  have 
thought  down  into  this  matter,  who  have  eliminated  the  purely 
visionary  and  the  theoretical  and  the  imaginative,  who  would  give 
their  lives  to  the  realization  of  this  great"purpose.     And  yet  I 


196  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

am  glad  to  say  that  young  men  and  women  still  have  their  visions, 
and  that  the  most  commanding  vision  among  the  young  men  and 
women  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  in  this  day  is  of  the  world 
evangelized  in  our  generation.  What  do  we  mean  by  this?  Not 
the  conversion  of  the  world.  God  only  knows  how  long  that  will 
take.  Not  the  Christianization  of  the  world.  Judging  by  history, 
that  will  take  many  centuries.  Where  is  the  nation  today  that 
we  can  call  purely  Christian?  Nor  does  it  mean  the  superficial 
preaching  of  the  gospel.  Nobody  resents  this  more  than  those 
who  advocate  the  idea  of  the  evangelization  of  the  world  in  this 
generation.  I  know  of  no  agency  that  stands  more  for  thorough- 
ness than  the  Volunteer  Movement  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean. 
Nor  does  it  mean  the  minimizing  of  any  form  or  phase  of  mis- 
sionary work.  It  stands  rather  for  the  emphasizing  of  the  belief 
that,  by  the  multiplication  of  all  these  agencies  and  plans  which 
God  has  been  using,  the  gospel  can  and  should  be  preached  to  all 
people.  Expressed  in  other  language,  the  evangelization  of  the 
world  in  this  generation  means  to  give  all  people  an  adequate 
opportunity  to  know,  and  then,  if  they  will,  to  accept,  Jesus  Christ 
as  their  personal  Saviour  and  Lord.  It  is  not  to  be  interpreted 
as  an  end  in  itself.  Its  advocates  are  constantly  insisting  that 
after  the  peoples  have  been  evangelized  they  must  still  be  in- 
structed and  baptized  and  built  up  and  organized  into  churches, 
established  in  faith  and  character,  trained  in  methods  of  unselfish 
service,  brought  to  bear  upon  the  problem  of  the  extension  of 
Christianity,  and  that  we  must  keep  ever  in  mind  the  building  up 
—  as  was  so  eloquently  stated  today  —  of  self-supporting,  self- 
governing,  self-propagating  native  churches  of  such  strength  that 
if  Christianity  were  to  die  out  in  the  United  States  and  England  it 
would  abide  as  a  propagating  force  in  Japan  and  in  the  Levant 
and  India  and  South  America.  Therefore,  when  we  speak  of 
evangelizing  the  world  in  this  generation,  we  mean  not  some  super- 
ficial, unscientific,  unscriptural,  careless  statement.  The  ideal  of 
the  Williams  Haystack  Band,  possessed,  we  believe,  by'  the 
Apostolic  Church,  was  eminently  scriptural.  All  men  need 
Christ,  and  therefore  this  must  be  done  in  our  day.  We  owe 
Christ  to  all  men,  and  therefore  it  must  be  done  in  our  day;  the 
Christians  of  this  generation  must  evangelize  the  non-Christians 
of  this  generation,  if  they  are  ever  to  be  evangelized.  The  Chris- 
tians of  the  last  generation  cannot  do  it,  can  they?  They  are 
dead  and  gone.     The  Christians  who  are  coming  after  us  cannot 


VISION    OF    THE    HAYSTACK   REALIZED.  107 

do  it,  can  they?  The  individuals  now  living  will  then  be  gone. 
Obviously,  the  Christians  of  each  generation  must  give  to  the 
non-Christians  of  that  generation  the  opportunity  to  know  about 
Jesus  Christ.  The  students  of  our  generation,  in  common  with 
the  Haystack  Band,  insist  that  this  thing  not  only  ought  to  be 
done,  but,  to  a  degree  that  the  membership  of  that  band  could 
not  insist,  we  bear  down  on  the  fact  that  it  can  be  done. 

Missionary  Expansion. 

How  may  the  vision  of  the  Haystack  Band  with  reference 
to  this  speedy  evangelization  of  the  world  be  more  rapidly  and 
thoroughly  realized?  I  think  we  will  agree  that  the  first  three 
aspects  of  their  vision  which  I  have  mentioned  tonight  have  been 
realized — that  is,  an  intercollegiate  missionary  society;  students 
streaming  out  to  the  non-Christian  nations  to  stay  there  for  life 
as  missionaries;  adequate  missionary  agencies  to  send  them. 
Those  parts  of  the  vision,  you.  admit,  have  been  realized.  The 
last  part,  the  speedy  evangelization  of  the  world,  is  yet  far  from 
realization.  How  may  this  vision,  I  repeat,  be  more  speedily, — 
and  let  me  link  up  with  that  at  once,  —  more  thoroughly  realized? 
I  will  give  the  answer  in  outline. 

There  must  be  far  more  extensive  missionary  operations. 
The  time  has  come  to  grapple  with  this  great  work  on  a  broad 
scale.  Conditions  now  in  the  foreign  field  favor  such  an  enlarge- 
ment of  our  operations.  The  conditions  at  home  favor  it.  We 
must  have  nothing  less  than  a  great  army  of  properly  qualified 
missionaries,  before  the  generation  closes,  to  accomplish  the  task. 
There  must  be  a  marvelous  enlargement  of  the  financial  coopera- 
tion of  Christians.  We  must  not  be  satisfied  with  the  present 
rate  of  increase  in  the  gifts  of  Christians.  I  firmly  believe  that 
the  time  has  come  when  thousands  of  individual  Christians  and 
families,  including  not  a  few  represented  here  tonight,  not  to 
speak  of  churches,  should  support  their  own  missionary  or  mis- 
sionaries. I  likewise  believe  that  the  time  has  come  when  the 
Young  People's  Missionary  Movement,  and  agencies  working  there- 
with, can  educate  a  generation  of  youth  to  completely  revolu- 
tionize the  habits  of  living  in  our  churches.  With  equal  convic- 
tion do  I  believe  that  the  time  has  come  when,  with  a  proper 
presentation  of  the  missionary  enterprise,  it  will  receive  bene- 
factions as  princely  as  those  which  have  been  given  to  higher  edu- 
cation in  North  America  and  the  British  Isles  writhin  the  past 


198  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

decade.  We  must  have  an  enlargement  of  the  supervisory  agen- 
cies on  the  home  base.  I  mean  by  that  an  increase  in  the  number 
of  board  secretaries,  especially  in  the  field.  What  was  sufficient 
twenty  years  ago  is  not  sufficient  today.  People  are  much  more 
absorbed  and  life  is  more  complex.  Appeals  are  more  conflicting, 
materialism  is  waxing.  It  is  going  to  take  a  larger  combination, 
organized  on  the  best  modern  business  lines,  and  flooded  with  the 
spirit  of  God,  to  meet  the  present  situation. 

The  second  thing  that  is  necessary  is  a  statesmanlike  plan. 
People  follow  a  big  plan  and  a  high  ideal.  They  have  never  been 
known  to  lag  behind  it.  I  ask  you  whether  this  is  not  true,  that 
the  present  plan  of  our  churches  is  inconsistent  with  a  deep  con- 
viction that  God  wants  this  world  to  hear  about  Christ  in  one 
generation?  It  is  inconsistent  with  that  conception.  I  will  go 
further  and  say  that  in  my  judgment  the  time  has  come  when 
there  should  be  a  fresh  study  on  the  part  of  our  various  churches 
as  a  whole,  possibly  by  a  commission,  of  the  world-wide  field,  that 
it  should  then  be  mapped  out,  and  plans  should  be  put  on  foot  for 
an  effective  occupation.  It  is  absurd  to  say  that  there  is  not 
statesmanship  and  churchmanship  enough  in  our  great  Christian 
bodies  to  do  what  is  done  today  in  the  realm  of  commerce  on 
precisely  these  lines.     I  cannot  amplify  that  point. 

The  third  thing  that  is  necessary,  if  we  are  to  evangelize  the 
world  speedily  and  thoroughly,  is  this.  Besides  having  this 
enlargement  of  our  operations  and  of  the  plan  involved,  there 
must  be  a  closer  unification  and  a  better  coordination  of  the 
missionary  forces,  especially  on  the  home  field.  Here  is  one  of 
the  crowning  glories  of  the  American  Board.  It  has  never  lagged 
behind  in  standing  for  comity  and  cooperation  and  unity.  If  the 
other  denominations  of  North  America  would  do  likewise,  we 
could  revolutionize  the  missionary  operations  of  North  American 
and  European  Christianity. 

I  wish  I  might  enlarge  upon  that  point,  but  I  pass  to  mention, 
as  a  fourth  thing  that  is  essential,  that  if  this  world  is  to  be  evan- 
gelized speedily  and  thoroughly,  this  enterprise  as  a  whole  must  be 
flooded  more  than  ever  with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from 
heaven.  The  ground,  Mr.  Chairman,  of  my  hope  and  confidence 
tonight  is  not  so  much  the  strength  of  missionary  organizations, 
not  the  number  of  missionaries,  not  the  fullness  of  the  treasury, 
not  the  splendid  material  plants  and  equipments,  not  the  great 
interest  already  awakened  among  myriads  of  young  people,  not 


VISION    OF    THE    HAYSTACK    REALIZED.  199 

the  experience  we  have  acquired  in  the  wonderful  century  that 
has  passed,  not  the  inspiring  watchwords  and  splendid  forward 
movements,  not  the  statesmanship  and  far-sighted  plans  — 
although  I  believe  in  all  these  most  thoroughly.  But  my  hope 
rests  not  so  much  in  these  as  in  the  fact  that  the  work  is  to  be 
accomplished  by  the  Holy  Spirit  himself,  who  is  the  Author  of 
this  work.  Men  have  tried  to  accomplish  it  at  times  in  other 
ways.  It  is  a  divine  work.  Missionary  spirit  and  achievement  are 
the  product  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  matter  is  not  the  result  of 
human  ingenuity  and  a  large  expenditure  of  human  energy  and 
organization;  it  is  the  work  of  God. 

And  then  I  say,  finally,  that  we  who  have  had  these  never-to- 
be-forgotten  privileges  of  being  at  Williams  and  at  North  Adams 
in  these  days  should  go  away  to  be  men  and  women  of  vision. 
After  all,  visions  are  the  strength  of  our  life.  Where  there  is  no 
vision  the  people  perish,  the  world  perishes.  Christ  was  the 
supreme  visionary.  He  said,  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all 
men  unto  me."  He  peered  down  through  the  centuries  to  the 
realization  of  that  vision.  And  we  want  something  besides  simply 
the  vision  of  the  Haystack  Band.  We  want  our  own  vision  — 
the  vision  of  the  cross  of  Christ  with  its  satisfying  power,  and  the 
vision  of  that  great  multitude  whom  no  man  can  number,  out  of 
all  nations  and  from  all  tribes  and  tongues  and  kindreds,  standing 
before  the  throne  and  before  the  Lamb,  clothed  with  white  robes 
and  with  palms  in  their  hands,  shouting  with  a  loud  voice,  "  Salva- 
tion unto  our  God  and  unto  the  Lamb  that  sitteth  upon  the 
throne!  " 

"  But  lo,  there  dawns  a  yet  more  glorious  day, 
The  saints  triumphant  rise  in  bright  array, 
The  King  of  Glory  passes  on  His  way. 
Alleluia ! 

"  From  earth's  wide  bounds,  from  ocean's  farthest  coast, 
Through  gates  of  pearl  streams  in  the  countless  host, 
Singing  to  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  — 
Alleluia!" 


200  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


THE  MISSIONARY  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  STUDENTS 
OF  THIS  GENERATION. 

Prof.  Harlan  P.  Beach,  of  Yale  University. 

The  challenge  with  which  we  have  to  do  is  addressed  to  the 
students  of  this  generation.  And  surely  no  previous  generation 
of  students  has  been  so  well  prepared  for  heeding  a  challenge  that 
demands  men  and  women  adequately  equipped  for  the  manifold 
work  of  the  various  mission  fields. 

The  Qualifications. 

I.  May  I  suggest  a  few  respects  in  which  the  men  and  women 
in  our  institutions  of  higher  learning  are  peculiarly  fitted  for  the 
varied  tasks  falling  to  the  lot  of  effective  missionaries  today? 

First,  the  range  of  studies  found  in  our  college  catalogues  is  far 
broader  than  was  printed  in  those  of  a  few  decades  ago.  Latin 
and  Greek,  which  were  so  prominent  then,  and  which  have  un- 
doubted value  as  a  means  of  discipline  and  as  a  fount  of  culture, 
have  largely  given  place  to  more  practically  useful  studies.  A 
graduate  of  any  high-grade  institution  today  has  a  wider  horizon 
than  his  father  had  seen  before  his  graduation.  Pope's  dictum: 
"  The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man,"  is  being  realized  at 
last,  so  that  students  understand  the  life  of  our  time  through  a 
rational  interpretation  of  history.  They  have  studied  sociology, 
ethnology,  and  economics.  They  have  taken  courses  in  pedagogy, 
so  essential  for  those  whose  work  abroad  is  mainly  that  of  teachers. 
Their  philosophical  studies  have  been  such  as  furnish  them  with 
weapons  to  meet  current  philosophical  objections  to  Christianity, 
urged  by  keen  Brahmans  or  alert  Japanese  students.  Those  who 
heard  Secretary  Barton's  notable  address  at  the  Nashville  Con- 
vention will  see  how  directly  this  broader  training  of  the  modern 
college  student  contributes  to  effective  mission  work. 

Enlarged  sympathy  is  a  second  characteristic  of  our  students 
to  an  extent  that  was  not  true  fifty  years  ago.  For  four  years 
they  sit  side  by  side  in  classroom  and  club  with  fellow-students 
from  Armenia,  India,  the  Philippines,  China,  and  Japan.  The 
close  intimacy  and  rivalry  of  the  athletic  field  and  examination 
hall  engender  mutual  respect  and  friendship.     "  Heathen  "  is  an 


THE    .mission  \m    in  OiLENGE.  201 

unthinkable  word;  the  aspirations  of  these  brothers  from  across 
the  sea  are  shared  by  their  classmates.  In  the  item  of  difference 
of  religion,  American  students  feel  a  sympathy  which  would  be 
impossible  without  the  foundation  of  friendship  and  respect  which 
constant  association  begets.  The  study  of  comparative  religion, 
which  is  becoming  quite  common  in  our  larger  colleges  and  uni- 
versities, fosters  still  more  the  sense  of  brotherhood;  and  Christ  ian 
men  see  in  the  gropings  of  the  nations  after  God  the  sure  evidence 
of  religious  capacity  and  of  an  unarticulated  longing  for  that  God 
and  Father  of  all,  whom  we  know  more  perfectly.  It  is  hardly 
possible  for  students  who  have  had  this  sort  of  training  to  be  other 
than  cosmopolitan  in  spirit;  nor  are  they  likely  as  missionaries  to 
violate  those  requirements  of  courtesy  and  tactfulness  which  are 
such  important  factors  in  missionary  effectiveness. 

A  third  particular  in  which  our  students  are  better  fitted  for 
meeting  the  challenge  of  the  mission  fields  than  were  men  of  pre- 
vious generations  is  found  in  the  greater  prevalence  of  the  spirit 
of  Christian  unity  in  our  colleges  and  universities.  As  practically 
every  college  has  a  Christian  Association,  that  great  harmonizer 
of  divergent  beliefs  has  sunk  denominational  differences  and  uni- 
fied all  Christians  in  common  efforts  for  personal  spiritual  growth 
and  for  outreaching  Christian  activity.  When  one  recalls  how- 
detrimental  to  missionary  success  all  sectarianism  is,  and  how 
common  the  spirit  of  Christian  union  and  cooperation  is  becoming 
on  the  foreign  fields,  one  can  only  thank  God  for  this  college 
preparation  for  those  fields. 

A  fourth  respect  in  which  our  students  are  prepared  to  listen 
to  the  missionary  challenge  is  found  in  the  preparation  afforded, 
mainly  in  the  Student  Association,  but  also  through  other  societies, 
and  in  some  cases  through  courses  in  the  curriculum.  Thus  nearly 
all  prospective  missionaries  during  their  undergraduate  years 
receive  a  training  in  the  textual  and  devotional  study  of  the  Bible 
which  is  broad  in  its  range  and  vital  in  its  power  over  life.  This 
sort  of  study  is  far  more  useful  than  the  critical  —  particularly 
the  higher  critical  —  study  of  the  Scriptures  for  ninety-five  per 
cent  of  our  missionaries.  Though  the  study  of  missions  is  not 
participated  in  so  wddely  as  is  voluntary  Bible  study,  most  candi- 
dates are  enrolled  among  the  ten  thousand  students  wrho  annually 
engage  in  that  work.  Hardly  less  important  as  a  preparative  is  the 
experience  gained  through  the  wisely  organized  activities  of  the 
Association.     "  Team  work  "  thus  becomes  familiar  to  college 


202  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

men  and  women;  the  habit  of  unitedly  studying  common  religious 
problems  and  methods  of  work  is  carried  by  them  to  remote 
mission  stations;  and  the  inspiring  memories  of  Northfield,  Ashe- 
ville,  Lake  Geneva,  and  Silver  Bay  are  so  abiding  that  Northfields 
spring  up  in  Japan,  China,  and  India,  to  the  manifest  advance- 
ment of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Demands  of  the  Fields. 

II.  Turning  now  to  the  more  practical  side  of  our  theme,  let  us 
consider  the  varied  demands  made  by  the  fields.  What  is  the 
challenge  of  the  fields? 

First  of  all,  it  is  a  challenge  to  intelligent  work.  Traditionalism 
in  the  methods  and  theories  of  missions  held  in  the  field  to  which 
one  goes  cannot  meet  this  challenge,  unless  it  be  a  traditionalism 
based  upon  a  sane,  united,  unremitting,  prayerful  study  of  condi- 
tions by  all  those  competent  to  discuss  its  varied  problems.  A 
foundation  has  been  laid  by  the  far-sighted  candidate  in  special 
postgraduate  studies,  either  in  the  graduate  department  of  the 
universit}',  or  in  special  seminary  courses.  After  one  has  orien- 
tated himself  in  his  station  and  has  learned  the  best  that  his  col- 
leagues —  especially  the  native  fellow- workers — can  impart  to  him, 
he  increases  his  knowledge  by  wise  experimentation  based  upon 
the  wider  experience  of  other  parts  of  his  chosen  country,  or  of 
more  distant  mission  fields.  The  hit-or-miss,  thoughtless,  narrow 
program  of  missions  is  passing  with  the  increase  of  missionary 
conferences  and  the  advance  in  field  visitation. 

Secondly,  the  challenge  of  the  fields  is  to  versatility.  Specialists 
have  their  place  in  some  countries  and  missions,  but  the  vast 
majority  of  our  missionaries  will  need,  for  years  to  come,  the  versa- 
tility of  our  old  hero,  master  of  nearly  a  score  of  trades,  Dr.  Cyrus 
Hamlin.  The  man  who  chafes  at  the  monotony  of  a  home 
pastorate,  who,  in  the  phrase  of  Mills,  is  "  pestered  in  this  pinhole 
here,"  will  find  his  over-sea  parish  a  perplexing  tangle  of  possi- 
bilities that  call  for  a  specialist-in-everything.  At  least  he  must 
supply  needs  that  call  for  such  a  melange  as  used  to  be  found,  in 
my  undergraduate  days  at  New  Haven,  in  a  ten-by-twelve  box 
of  a  store  kept  by  fully  matured  maiden  sisters  who  had  pledged 
over  the  door  this  fairly  truthful  legend,  "  A  general  assortment 
of  almost  everything." 

Thirdly,  this  challenge  comes  from  lands  which  in  many  cases 
are  undergoing  a  national  transformation,   usually  abnormally 


THE    MISSIONARY    CHALLENGE.  203 

rapid  in  character.  The  transformation  from  feudal  conditions 
into  an  empire  that  easily  holds  the  hegemony  of  the  far  East 
is  the  greatest  wonder  of  historical  millenniums.  And  yet,  what 
Japan  has  accomplished  in  half  a  century,  China  is  doing  at  this 
moment;  and  if  the  present  rate  of  speed  is  maintained  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  she  will  eclipse  even  Japan's  marvelous  record. 
When  nations  are  in  the  flux  and  are  willing  to  accept  the  aid  of 
Christian  nations,  then  is  the  time  for  Christians  to  seize  the 
opportunity.  And  surely  no  man  can  ask  for  a  greater  privilege 
than  is  offered  by  a  formative  method  like  this.  Guido  Verbeck 
may  have  been  a  "  man  without  a  country,"  but  his  adopted  land 
owes  more  to  him  than  to  any  other  foreigner  —  more  perhaps 
than  to  any  Japanese.  Very,  very  few  missionaries  can  be 
Schwartzes  and  Livingstones  and  Verbecks,  but  every  missionary 
is  able  to  effect  greater  changes  than  he  ever  would  in  America. 
Storrs,  the  young  New  Hampshire  pastor  who  went  out  to  China 
three  years  ago,  writes  back  with  truth  that  at  this  early  stage  in 
his  career  he  can  accomplish  four  times  as  much  as  in  his  New 
England  parish,  so  unusual  are  the  openings  at  this  period  of 
transition.  The  Christian  student  should  think,  too,  of  what  will 
happen  if  the  ideas  underlying  our  civilization  are  left  out  in  these 
times  of  change  and  fixation.  Nations  will  be  defective  in  those 
things  that  make  for  highest  progress;  the  kingdom  of  God  will 
be  greatly  retarded  in  its  onward  sweep. 

In  the  fourth  place,  the  critical  religious  situation  in  non- 
Christian  lands  constitutes  an  appealing  challenge.  The  religions 
of  most  mission  countries  are  genuine,  even  if  crude,  attempts  to 
account  for  the  seemingly  supernatural  phenomena  of  daily  experi- 
ence, as  well  as  their  attempt  to  provide  an  ethical  and  religious 
norm.  As  Western  civilization  enters  such  a  land  with  its  true 
explanation  of  nature's  laws,  and  with  its  contempt  for  all  super- 
stition, the  old  beliefs  are  seen  to  be  irrational.  The  gods  and 
their  useless  cult  are  cast  aside  by  the  intelligent  leaders,  with  the 
result  that  they  are  left  without  a  religion,  and  use  their  influence 
to  discredit  popular  religious  beliefs  and  practices.  Naturally 
this  empty,  swept,  and  garnished  house  is  speedily  taken  posses- 
sion of  by  other  evil  spirits  of  unbelief  and  moral  laxity.  Chris- 
tianity is  attractive  and  rational  and  could  have  occupied  the 
empty  house  if  Christians  had  been  at  hand  to  make  its  claims 
clear  and  to  illustrate  the  power  of  true  religion.  "  Christ  or 
Confucius  —  which?  "     "  India's  Problem  —  Krishna  or  Christ," 


204  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

have  been  titles  of  moving  discussions  long  enough.     Let  us  enter 
the  lists  for  our  Champion  and  win  India  and  China  for  Him. 

A  fifth  challenge  from  the  fields  is  a  loud  call  to  leadership. 
As  the  missionary  enterprise  has  passed  from  the  old  individual- 
istic stage  to  the  socialistic,  organization  and  community  of 
interests  have  come  to  the  front.  This  change  demands  men  and 
women  who  are  competent  to  lead  in  the  new  Christian  community 
and  in  the  awakening  state.  Men  who  can  lead  the  evangelistic 
forces  of  the  native  church  in  an  aggressive  campaign  against 
indifference  and  ignorant  contempt  for  Christianity  are  most 
commonly  needed.  I  vividly  recall  the  enthusiasm  with  which 
our  North  China  veteran,  the  late  Dr.  Blodget,  used  to  picture 
the  vision  that  possessed  his  eager  soul  —  the  vision  of  the  day 
when  the  evangelistic  missionary  would  be  to  a  group  of  native 
workers  what  Jesus  was  to  the  Twelve.  He  would  grow  eloquent 
as  he  pictured  the  impressions  that  such  a  company  would  make 
as  they  went  from  village  to  village  with  the  message  of  a  great 
salvation.  That  this  hope  was  not  unfounded  is  abundantly 
proved  by  the  success  of  George  Eddy  in  our  own  Madura  field, 
and  by  the  still  more  significant  labors  of  Canada's  hero,  Mackay 
of  Formosa.  But  leaders  are  demanded  in  other  kinds  of  work 
as  well.  Some  missions  call  for  organizers  of  labor  and  industry, 
all  of  them  need  men  and  women  who  can  effectively  organize  the 
Christian  work  of  a  church,  assigning  to  every  one  a  definite  and 
responsible  task.  Educationists  are  required  to  lead  the  church 
and  to  aid  the  government  in  the  new  educational  movements  that 
are  remaking  many  nations.  Diplomats  are  necessary  to  meet 
the  revolt  against  leadership  in  a  few  lands  where  national  con- 
sciousness is  emerging  and  making  native  Christians  restive  under 
foreign  ecclesiastical  control.  But  the  kind  of  leader  whom  the 
infant  church  most  needs  is  the  man  or  woman  whose  life  is  so 
manifestly  hid  with  Christ  in  God  that  a  high  and  holy  enthusiasm 
is  awakened  in  believers  and  unbelievers  alike.  Such  mission- 
aries will  never  be  without  a  company  of  imitators  who  can  be  led 
to  any  position  of  hardness  and  danger. 

The  Missionary  Challenge. 

III.  But  who  are  those  who  utter  this  challenge  to  the  students 
of  our  generation? 

One  would  naturally  mention  first  those  in  our  own  fields  who 
are  anxiously  crying  out,  "  Come  over  and  help  us."     Thus  Bitlis, 


THE   MISSIONARY   CHALLENGE.  205 

in  our  Eastern  Turkey  Mission,  is  a  field  which  calls  for  heroic 
men.  In  that  mountainous  region,  with  its  lawless  Kurds,  there 
is  work  for  the  bravest  and  most  persistent;  but  when  one  labors 
for  parishioners  who  after  two  years'  unlawful  imprisonment 
thanked  God  for  the  opportunity  thus  afforded  to  preach 
daily  to  their  fellow-prisoners,  our  heroisms  seem  puny.  A  no 
less  loud  call  from  an  entirely  different  sort  of  a  post  comes  from 
Lin  Ching,  on  the  old  Grand  Canal  in  China.  Two  or  three 
years  ago  Mr.  Chapin,  who  was  then  the  only  missionary  there, 
kept  a  record  of  those  who  wished  to  receive  instruction  in  Chris- 
tianity, until  the  number  of  men  reached  five  hundred,  when  he 
refused  to  add  another  name,  so  hopeless  was  it  for  one  man 
to  overtake  such  a  work.  Since  that  time  he  has  been  over- 
burdened with  the  harvesting  of  this  wonderful  time  in  China.  Go 
over  and  help,  some  of  you  students  here,  —  or  perhaps  better  yet, 
one  of  you  young  pastors  who  has  had  experience  here  in  America. 
These  are  but  two  samples  of  those  who  are  daily  challenging  the 
American  Board  to  heed  their  cry. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  millions  of  challengers  are  our  brothers 
and  sisters.  The  parable  of  the  sheep  and  the  goats  in  St.  Mat- 
thew, twenty-fifth  chapter,  makes  this  perfectly  clear.  It  is  my 
brother  and  sister,  and  yours,  who  are  hungering  and  thirsting 
literally;  but  what  is  more  important,  it  is  "  not  a  famine  of  bread, 
nor  a  thirst  for  water,  but  of  hearing  the  Word  of  the  Lord." 
They  are  literally  sick  and  need  the  Christian  physician  with  his 
double  cure;  they  are  imprisoned  and  bound  by  chains  that  seem 
beyond  human  power  to  burst.  They  are  strangers  to  the  better 
things  of  life,  and  their  nakedness  and  rags  are  a  reproach  to  us 
well-clothed  Christians.  But  they  are  also  our  brothers  and 
brethren  of  Jesus,  even  though  they  be  "  the  least."  Do  not  their 
lame  hands  of  faith  stretched  out  toward  those  who  are  not  true 
gods,  their  cries  to  the  priest,  or  medicine  man,  or  sorcerer,  who 
is  the  only  savior  known  to  them,  —  do  they  not  move  you 
deeply?  If  our  wills  are  not  stirred  to  action,  the  refrain  of  the 
hidden  Jesus  must  haunt  us  in  the  last  and  solemn  day,  "  Ye  did 
it  not  unto  me." 

But,  thirdly,  this  missionary  challenge  is  uttered  by  no  less  a 
personage  than  our  Saviour  and  Lord.  A  volume  soon  to  be 
published  claims  that  Jesus  never  uttered  the  last  commission, 
and  this  claim  is  made  by  one  who  has  done  much  for  missions, 
I  do  not  believe  that  all  of  us  would  find  his  arguments  convincing. 


206  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

but  I  am  positive  that  you  and  the  author  of  the  book  himself  will 
agree  that  if  anything  is  clear  in  the  gospels,  the  petitions,  "  Our 
Father,  who  art  in  heaven,  .  .  .  thy  kingdom  come,  thy  will  be 
done  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven  ";  that  pitying  wail  over  those 
other  sheep  not  of  this  fold  whom  he  would  gather  unto  himself; 
that  self-disclosure  to  the  questioning  Greeks  in  the  temple,  and 
to  nations  yet  unborn,  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  me,"  —  these  and  many  another  word  of  Jesus 
make  it  patent  that  the  great  object  of  his  coming  into  the  world 
was  to  seek  and  save  that  which  was  lost.  It  is,  then,  the  challenge 
of  the  great  Finder  of  men  flung  down  before  the  found  ones  who 
for  long  have  been  feasting  in  his  banqueting  house  of  love,  and 
whom  he  would  have  imitate  the  Good  Shepherd  who  gladly  lays 
down  his  life  for  the  sheep. 

Finally,  we  cannot  believe  that  the  Almighty  God,  the  everlast- 
ing Father,  he  who  "  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  to  dwell 
on  all  the  face  of  the  earth,"  can  be  oblivious  of  the  woes  and 
longings  of  his  creatures.  Let  the  lowest  among  men,  as  some 
ethnologists  regard  them,  the  Australian  Blackfellows,  believe  in 
Buddai,  who  in  the  dim  past  engulfed  mankind  in  a  great  flood, 
after  which  he  assumed  the  role  of  a  gigantic  old  man  who  has  for 
ages  been  asleep  in  the  sand  and  who  at  last  will  swallow  up  man- 
kind. Such  is  not  our  God  and  Father.  As  Jesus  in  the  pearl  of 
parables  depicts  our  Father,  his  eye  is  upon  the  road  down  which 
wilfully  or  unwittingly  his  children  have  gone  into  that  far  country 
where  all  men  sooner  or  later  are  in  want  and  live  on  unsatisfying 
husks.  Because  he  desires  them  to  come  back  to  the  ancestral 
home,  he  would  send  you  and  me  to  tell  them  of  his  abiding  love 
and  fatherly  yearning.  The  idea  that  he  does  not  care  for  them 
and  is  glad  to  leave  every  man  to  his  own  devices  is  unbelievable, 
and  wholly  at  variance  with  that  concise  definition  of  him  which 
in  the  literal  translation  of  the  Mandarin  version  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment reads,  "  God's  heart,  then,  is  love." 

IV.  A  fourth  word  has  to  do  with  the  phrase,  "  this  generation." 
Let  this  old  world  be  as  venerable  as  geologists  and  evolutionists 
would  make  it;  let  its  many  races  be  granted  a  life  many  times 
longer  than  the  traditional  chronology  of  our  Bibles;  yet  it 
nevertheless  remains  true  that  for  some  thousands  of  years  the 
age  of  man  has  not  exceeded  the  psalmist's  measure  of  three  score 
and  ten,  while  the  average  duration  of  life  is  a  third  of  a  century. 
The  Chinese  ideograph  for  world  and  also  for  generation  is  made 


THE    MISSIONARY   CHALLENGE.  207 

up  of  the  sign  for  ten  thrice  repeated.  According  to  this  linguistic 
fossil  of  a  remote  past,  in  three  brief  decades  the  races  of  men 
come  to  birth,  live  out  their  joyous  or  cheerless  lives,  and  crumble 
into  dust  —  sixteen  hundred  millions  of  them.  During  the  three 
days  that  we  are  celebrating  what  a  few  prophetic  students  ini- 
tiated a  century  ago,  almost  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  our  brothers 
and  sisters  will  have  passed  from  earth  without  ever  having  had 
an  opportunity  to  know  our  Father  and  their  Father,  or  of  experi- 
encing his  peace  which  passeth  all  understanding. 

Exceeding  Great  Rewards. 

V.  Finally,  the  challenge  to  the  students  of  this  generation, 
like  those  in  ancient  tourneys,  carries  with  it  an  exceeding  great 
reward.  Jesus  himself  spoke  of  those  who  for  his  sake  and  the 
gospel's  should  go  on  his  errands  of  mercy,  leaving  houses,  or 
brethren,  or  mother,  or  children,  or  lands.  "  What  a  series  of 
losses!  "  one  says.  No;  read  to  the  end.  There  is  no  one  who 
thus  loses  "  who  shall  not  receive  manifold  more  in  this  time,  and 
in  the  world  to  come  eternal  life."  It  is  not  the  smile  and  favor 
of  some  "  queen  of  beauty  "  that  the  missionary  knight  seeks. 
Every  modern  apostle  learns  on  the  field  of  conflict  that  there  is  a 
love  passing  that  of  woman,  and  that  to  have  with  one  "  all  the 
days  "  a  beatific  and  abiding  Presence  is  all  that  one  can  ask  or 
desire. 

But  other  rewards  are  not  wanting,  the  most  precious  of  which, 
it  seems  to  me,  is  the  gratitude  of  those  whom  one  has  been  privi- 
leged to  aid  in  the  struggle  toward  the  light.  May  I  be  pardoned 
for  giving  a  personal  illustration  of  what  other  missionaries  have 
experienced  under  similar  circumstances.  After  only  six  years 
of  service  in  dear  old  China,  ill  health  made  an  immediate  return 
to  America  imperative.  The  decision  came  on  Friday,  and  we 
succeeded  in  keeping  the  matter  from  the  native  Christians  until 
Sunday,  the  day  before  our  departure.  Nothing  unusual  occurred 
until  our  young  Chinese  pastor  raised  his  hands  to  pronounce  the 
benediction.  He  had  only  said  the  words,  "  May  the  grace  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  when  he  was  overcome  with  his  emotions 
and  a  foreigner  was  obliged  to  finish.  Then  a  man  of  forty,  once 
a  leader  of  a  sect  who  had  under  him  five  hundred  men,  ostensibly 
followers  of  "  the  sages  and  holy  men,"  but  who  really  were  cov- 
ert revolutionists,  —  a  man  with  whom  I  had  sat  day  after  day  in 
an  experience  which  he  described  as  "  heaven,"  — came  up  and 


208  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

placed  in  my  hands  a  poem  which  he  had  composed  and  which 
expressed  feelings  that  he  did  not  venture  to  voice  orally,  —  a 
bit  of  paper  which  in  real  worth  was  vastly  more  valuable  than  a 
thousand-dollar  bond.  Never  can  we  forget  that  awful,  blessed 
day.  Men  singly  and  in  groups,  women  in  a  great  company,  came 
to  the  house,  all  with  tears  in  their  eyes  or  in  their  voices,  and  the 
testimony  was  of  one  tenor:  "  You  have  brought  us  a  great  bless- 
ing; we  cannot  bear  to  have  you  go."  The  women  were  appar- 
ently in  the  condition  of  one  of  the  Bible  readers  whom  Mrs. 
Beach  had  asked  to  take  charge  in  her  stead  of  a  Sunday-school 
outside  the  west  gate  of  the  city.  She  finally  consented  to  do  so 
with  this  condition,  that  on  that  first  afternoon  a  towel  should  be 
loaned  her.  Being  asked  the  reason  for  so  strange  a  request,  she 
replied,  "  When  I  go  out  there  and  tell  the  women  and  girls  that 
you  are  going  home  and  may  not  return,  they  will  all  cry  so  hard, 
and  I  will  cry  too."  Nothing  short  of  a  towel  would  then  do 
duty  for  the  dear  soul,  a  women  who,  when  the  Boxers  came  in 
1900  and  she  was  drowned,  sank  beneath  the  waters  literally  with 
a  song  in  her  mouth. 

The  next  morning  we  planned  to  leave  early,  and  when  I  arose 
I  heard  nothing.  Imagine  my  surprise  on  looking  out  the  window 
to  see  in  the  yard  a  multitude  of  men,  women,  and  children  waiting 
in  silence.  As  we  went  out  of  the  compound,  the  feeling  was 
intense  both  in  their  hearts  and  in  ours.  I  had  thought  that  when 
we  left  the  premises  our  trials  would  be  over,  but  in  the  street  were 
our  eleven  theological  students  bent  upon  accompanying  us  out- 
side the  city  gate.  It  was  simply  unbearable.  I  turned  to  them 
and  said:  "  We  are  all  brothers  and  love  each  other.  I  thank  you 
for  your  kind  thought,  but  it  simply  will  not  do  for  you  to  go 
further.  We  cannot  contain  ourselves;  we  must  not  go  weeping 
through  the  streets."  And  then  came  those  common  but  beautiful 
words  of  parting  which  usually  are  meaningless,  but  which  were 
so  full  of  import  then,  "» In  the  bright  day,  we  shall  see."  Yes, 
and  not  until  that  Great  and  Glorious  Day,  for  when,  two  years 
ago,  we  returned,  it  was  to  find  our  compound  with  its  nearly  fifty 
buildings  razed  to  the  ground,  not  one  brick  upon  another,  with 
not  a  trace  of  great  trees,  two  of  which  were  four  centuries  old. 
And  of  those  men  and  women  and  children,  we  saw  only  a  scat- 
tered remnant,  for  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  church  members 
sealed  their  devotion  with  their  blood  in  the  terrible  persecutions 
of  1900. 


THE    MISSIONARY   CHALLENGE.  209 

One  of  the  theological  students,  Li  Te-kuei,  did  not  .go  back 
when  I  bade  the  others  adieu.  "  Shepherd,  Shepherd,  I  cannot 
leave  you!  It  was  you  who  took  me  from  following  the  donkey, 
gave  me  the  opportunity  for  study  and  of  aiding  in  the  chapel, 
and  thus  enabled  me  to  serve  the  Lord."  Dear,  dear  fellow,  my 
heart  yearned  after  him,  and  in  an  agony  greater  by  far  than  I 
had  felt  when  I  bade  good-by  to  my  mother,  years  before,  we 
wrung  each  other's  hands  and  parted.  The  last  letter  received 
from  him  before  the  Boxer  carnage  told  of  the  way  in  which  God 
was  wonderfully  using  him  in  his  country  station,  which  trans- 
lated means  Eternal  Joy  Inn.  And  when  that  June  day  of  his 
translation  dawned,  my  friend  would  not  desert  his  little  flock. 
Finally  fleeing  with  them,  the  Boxer  horde  surrounded  them. 
The  chronicle  runs:  "  Mr.  Li  knelt  with  hands  outstretched  to 
heaven,  'Father,  if  you  want  us  to  go,'  —  but  before  the  prayer 
was  finished  a  rough  hook  fastened  to  a  long  pole  dragged  him 
over  backward.  .  .  .  Mrs.  Li  pleaded  for  her  tiny  baby,  and 
they  answered  by  taking  it  from  her  arms  and  offering  it  as 
their  first  sacrifice.  Mr.  Li  was  the  last  one  of  the  family  to  close 
his  eyes  to  earth's  horrors.  .  .  .  One  who  passed  over  this  road 
a  few  hours  later  saw  that  two  pits  had  been  dug,  into  which  the 
eight  bodies  had  been  thrown  and  roughly  buried.  It  will  ever  be 
a  sacred  spot,  that  wayside  grave,  where  man  and  wife,  faithful 
unto  death,  lay  with  the  lambs  of  their  flock  whom  they  had 
shepherded  so  tenderly.  In  the  spring,  when  the  grave  was 
opened  that  the  martyrs  might  be  placed  in  coffins,  Mr.  Li's  body 
was  found  still  in  the  attitude  of  prayer.  So  it  will  lie  until  the 
Great  Day."  Friends,  are  the  "  heathen  "  "  worth  saving?  " 
Are  their  lives  thrown  away,  who  listen  to  the  challenge  of  our 
ascended  Lord,  "  Go  ye?  " 

We  cannot  know  what  Jesus,  in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  read  beside 
the  Scriptures,  but  I  love  to  think  that  a  Talmudic  saying  of  that 
day  was  often  in  his  eager  heart,  as  I  would  that  it  might  be  in 
ours:  "The  day  is  short;  the  work  is  vast;  the  reward  is  great; 
the  Master  urges."  If  this  becomes  our  watchword,  we  shall 
realize  the  ambition  of  Mills  who  a  century  ago  wrote  to  a  kindred 
spirit:  "  Though  you  and  I  are  very  little  beings,  we  must  not 
rest  content  until  we  have  made  our  influence  extend  to  the 
remotest  corner  of  this  ruined  world." 


210  '  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL 

HAYSTACK  MEN  IN  THE  MINISTRY. 

Rev.  Charles  O.  Day,  D.D., 

President  of  Andover  Theological  Seminary. 

I  preside  here  representatively  this  evening,  by  the  request  of 
the  American  Board.  And  it  being  suggested  that  I  offer  a  few 
words,  I  am  glad  to  say  this:  It  was  a  graceful  and  fitting  act  for 
the  American  Board  to  give  this  invitation;  graceful,  because  a 
recognition  of  the  real  unity  of  purpose  and  work  which  has 
prevailed  between  the  two  institutions;  and  fitting,  because  in 
the  events  this  day  has  commemorated  the  place  of  Andover  was 
so  large  and  so  significant.  Two  of  the  "  Men  of  the  Haystack  " 
came  from  Williamstown  to  Andover,  James  Richards  and 
Samuel  J.  Mills.  There  they  were  joined  by  men  from  other 
colleges,  by  whom  was  deepened  and  perpetuated  the  flow  of  the 
spring  which  broke  forth  from  beneath  the  haystack.  These 
young  men  were  strengthened  by  President  Griffin,  who  went 
from  Andover  to  Williamstown;  and  counseled  by  Professor 
Stuart,  in  his  own  home  on  Andover  Hill.  The  famous  society, 
called  the  "  Brethren,"  came  to  Andover  from  Williams  in  1810, 
and  their  old  book  of  records  is  there  preserved.  To  carry  out 
the  end  of  the  "  Brethren,"  the  Society  of  Inquiry  was  organized 
in  1811,  with  the  older  secret  society  as  its  nucleus  and  governing 
force.  Moreover,  a  considerable  part  of  the  funds  of  Andover 
Seminary  came  to  her  in  view  of  her  missionary  character.  The 
earlier  inspiration  has  been  reenforced  by  the  devotion  of  many 
noble  souls,  as,  notably,  by  the  life  of  a  man  like  Neesima,  and  is 
today  quickened  by  the  present  zeal  of  an  army,  to  strike  whom 
from  the  rolls  of  the  Board  would  be  to  decimate  our  ranks. 

There  is  a  mysterious,  and  one  might  say,  cabalistic  signifi- 
cance of  the  number  "  Five  "  in  all  this  history.  Five  men 
gathered  beneath  the  haystack.  Five  towns  made  the  links  of 
progress  between  the  haystack  and  the  foreign  field:  Williams- 
town, Andover,  Bradford,  with  its  crucial  meeting  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts General  Association;  Farmington,  Conn.,  with  its  formal 
organization  of  this  Board;  and  Salem,  where,  in  the  old  Taber- 
nacle Church,  the  first  missionaries  were  set  apart  for  their  work. 
These  five  famous  towns  stand  for  a  complex  of  forces  making  for 


HAYSTACK   MEN    IN    THE    MINISTRY.  211 

missions.  Two,  Williamstown  and  Andover,  by  college  and 
seminary,  educate  men.  With  prophetic  suggestion  of  the  reach 
of  missionary  agencies,  Bradford  and  Farmington  educate  women; 
while  Salem,  with  its  oceanward  look,  its  museums,  its  historic 
spirit,  and  its  very  name,  suggests  the  work  of  that  universal  and 
eternal  Spirit  made  High  Priest  of  the  world  forever  under  the  order 
of  Melchizedek.  Five  men,  Judson,  Hall,  Nott,  Newell,  Rice,  sat 
on  the  old  settle  in  that  Tabernacle  Church,  which  still  cherishes 
it  as  a  memorial  of  their  consecration.  Five  talents  were  they, 
"  bringing  forth  five  talents  more."  Five  men  from  Andover 
Seminary,  representing  all  the  classes,  including  all  the  officers  of 
the  famous  old  Society  of  Inquiry,  never  more  vigorous,  though 
reduced  nearer  to  the  haystack  proportions,  are  here;  and  stand 
for  that  spiritual  current  which  is  the  deepest  and  strongest  pre- 
vailing in  that  institution  today.  Such  is  the  missionary  ancestry 
of  the  present  Andover  life!  She  cannot  depart  from  its  momen- 
tum; she  cannot  and  must  not  lose  this  crown,  or  be  robbed  of 
this  glory.  So  identified  is  she  with  the  cause  of  this  Board  that 
I  make  bold  to  say,  as  my  own  opinion,  and  in  all  I  say  here  I 
speak  for  myself,  that,  of  the  various  theories  which  eager  minds 
in  our  free  order  of  churches  are  busy  in  constructing  for  Andover, 
this  one,  though  not  practicable  legally,  nor  absolutely  the  best, 
is  above  all  other  specializations.  It  is  this:  Put  Andover 
resources  under  the  whole  circle  of  theological  training  conducted 
by  this  Board,  "the  world  around;  put  underneath  every  theologi- 
cal seminary  so  much  at  least  of  the  strength  of  the  Everlasting 
Arms;  carry  Mills'  spirit  into  every  land,  literally.  That,  indeed, 
is  a  great  and  appealing  thought. 

But  as  with  the  towns,  so  with  the  men  of  the  haystack.  If  this 
evening,  and  just  for  this  moment,  we  specially  think  of  their 
suggestion,  there  is  a  manifold  mission  to  be  fulfilled,  if  such  an 
entrustment  as  created  and  has  sustained  Andover  shall  be  carried 
out,  if  the  election  of  grace  shall  not  fail.  Not  all  of  those  men 
who  prayed  together  went  into  foreign  missionary  work.  Two, 
Robbins  and  Loomis,  stayed  with  the  home  churches.  They 
represent  the  provision-  of  leadership  for  our  American  churches 
themselves,  the  broad  foundation  upon  which  the  missionary 
spirit  shall  build.  For  such  leadership  our  churches  wait.  For 
that  provision  the  seminary  was  founded,  the  money  was  given, 
and  the  work  devoted,  with  most  careful,  explicit,  and  far-reaching 
instructions. 


212  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

"  The  primary  purpose  of  the  trust  as  clearly  laid  down  by  the 
founders,"  says  one  of  the  best  students  of  the  Andover  consti- 
tution, "  is  the  broadest  and  most  effective  possible  education  of 
'  learned  and  able  defenders  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  as  well  as  of 
orthodox,  pious,  and  zealous  ministers  of  the  New  Testament.' 
Any  aim  short  of  this  can  be  taken  as  a  controlling  one  only  wThen 
it  is  clear  that  the  primary  aim  can  in  no  way  be  carried  out." 

But  not  all  who  went  worked  in  either  home  churches  or  in 
foreign  fields.  For  there  was  Mills  himself!  He  stood  for  that 
linking  of  home  and  foreign  interests,  representing  cause  and 
effect  on  either  side,  which  is  the  keynote  of  missions  today. 
When  we  look  for  the  origin  of  American  foreign  missions  we  find 
its  spring  in  the  soul  of  the  immigrant,  and  in  the  first  instance 
for  New  England  in  the  labors  of  John  Eliot  for  the  Indians,  part 
of  whose  salary  was  paid  by  the  British  Society  for  Propagating 
the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  which  took  life  under  his  quickening 
touch.  Mills  arose  as  that  type  of  man,  timeless  in  his  inspiration, 
who  strives  to  save  America  to  save  the  world,  and  who,  in  Mills' 
case,  died  at  sea  in  his  famous  voyage  to  open  world  resources  to 
save  America;  involving  in  his  own  life  an  elevation  of  motive,  a 
range  of  personal  experience,  an  extension  of  labor,  and  a  unity 
of  conception  which  make  him  to  be  an  undying  and  increasing 
force  in  the  great  succession  which  begins  from  Christ.  His 
modest,  amazing  life  not  only  linked  both  foreign  and  home 
interests,  his  clear  vision  not  only  saw  the  need,  but  he  saw  the 
solution,  as  though  for  our  guidance,  in  the  only  ultimate  way. 
He  provided  an  American  leadership.  He  did  so  in  his  own 
person,  he  traveled  and  distributed  Bibles  in  several  tongues. 
He  presented  the  type  of  leadership  in  what  has  been  styled  a 
bilingual  or  polylingual  ministry,  indeed,  but  American;  always 
to  be  American,  though  it  may  sometimes  be  in  foreign-born  men; 
trained  to  the  hour;  with  comprehensive  equipment.  Nor  is 
any  other  way  of  solving  this  question  anything  but  temporary, 
inadequate,  inefficient,  un-American,  failing  to  meet  the  real  need 
and  conscious  desire  of  the  strangers  in  our  gates,  while  falling 
short  of  a  reasonable  apostolic  linguistic  demand  and  consecration. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  only  one  of  the  original  five  went  abroad,  yet 
he  was  that  one  who,  with  those  who  reenforced  him,  gave  distinct 
character  to  Andover,  and  commits  her  forever  to  the  direct  work 
of  training  foreign  missionaries.  God  forbid  that  she  should  ever 
break  with  this  century  of  spiritual  movement  or  cease  to  be 


HAYSTACK    MEN    IN'    THE    MINISTRY.  213 

identified  with  the  outlook  of  those  who  devoted  themselves  to 
effect  "  in  their  own  persons  "  a  mission  to  the  heat  lien. 

In  the  light  of  the  Williamstown  burning  bush,  that  burns  but 
cannot  be  consumed,  Andover  Seminary  is  committed  to  a  work 
no  less  comprehensive  than  the  history  of  those  men.  She  must 
be,  to  change  the  figure,  a  flaming  sword  turning  every  way;  to 
keep  and  to  signal  the  way  to  the  tree  of  life;  and  that  light  must 
not  be  merely  a  stationary  signal,  planted  on  a  Massachusetts 
rock,  but  a  torch  personally  carried  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

Now,  in  all  this  great  history  one  interesting  law  appears.  It 
is  that  for  the  work  of  the  progressive  kingdom  of  God  there  is 
need  on  the  one  hand  that  the  original  type  of  man  be  preserved, 
but  that  on  the  other  the  training  he  receives  because  of  the  work 
he  must  do  shall  be  increasingly  expanded  and  enriched.  It  is 
the  same  twofoldness  presented  in  the  New  Testament,  in  the 
Palestinian  work  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  subsequent  work  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  It  is  stated  as  involving  "  a  diversity  of  gifts  but 
the  same  spirit."  The  one  man  is  needed,  with  the  vision  of  faith 
in  human  nature,  and  with  a  heart  which  is  an  epitome  of  divine 
love.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  a  variety  and  thoroughness  in 
equipment  are  demanded  which  grow  with  every  year  of  the 
world's  unfolding.  More  than  in  any  time  since,  is  the  situation 
today  like  that  of  the  first  apostles  and  demands  a  training  like 
that  of  Paul,  in  temple,  in  city,  in  seclusion,  and  these  in  combi- 
nation; as  Jew,  Greek,  Roman  citizen;  in  knowledge  of  the  soul, 
philosophic  insight,  grasp  upon  world  religions,  power  of  adjust- 
ment, capacity  for  leadership.  Great  as  was  then  the  demand 
for  complete  training,  it  is  indeed  still  more  now\  Wherever  his 
work  may  be,  the  minister  must  be  in  a  true  sense  a  cosmopolitan 
man,  centered  in  the  enduring  essentials  for  theological  training, 
into  which  must  be  builded  the  larger  human  culture.  Shall  he 
lead  the  home  church?  It  is  the  same.  Is  his  work  that  of  aiding, 
by  Christianizing  at  its  roots,  our  great  enterprise  of  race  assimi- 
lation, the  endeavors  of  the  press,  the  platform,  and  supremely  the 
public  school?  The  same  training  is  needed.  Is  he  to  be  a  foreign 
missionary?  He  can  be  no  less.  We  need,  we  must  produce,  such 
men.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand.  We  must  develop  and 
train  such  leaders.  We  must  secure  the  enrichments,  make  the 
alliances,  rise  to  the  sacrifices  which  may  be  needed.  .  WTe  must 
keep  pace  with  the  onward  movement  of  God.  We  must  prepare 
good  soldiers  for  a  living,  a  modern,  Christ. 


214  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  HAYSTACK. 

An  Illustrated  Lecture. 
Rev.  Thomas  C.  Richards,  Williams,  '87, 
Pastor  at  Warren,  Mass. 

Beginning  with  the  time  when  the  Mills  family  first  located  in 
Connecticut,  the  speaker  followed  on  through  the  years  to  the  point 
where  the  brave  Williams  student,  after  a  trip  to  Africa  in  the 
interest  of  the  Negro  there,  passed  away  while  on  the  homeward 
trip  and  was  buried  at  sea.  He  dwelt  on  each  period  of  impor- 
tance in  the  life  of  Mills  only  sufficiently  to  make  it  perfectly  clear, 
with  now  and  then  a  bit  of  the  humorous  side  of  the  man  in  whose 
memory  the  big  centennial  meeting  at  Williamstown  was  held, 
Wednesday. 

The  first  picture  which  the  speaker  threw  on  the  canvas  was  the 
county  of  Litchfield  in  Connecticut,  in  which,  in  the  town  of 
Torringford,  young  Mills  was  born,  in  April,  1783.  After  speaking 
of  the  many  great  men  and  women  who  had  come  from  this  county, 
among  whom  were  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Ethan  Allen,  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe,  John  Brown,  and  others,  Mr.  Richards  told  of  the 
arrival  in  Torringford  of  a  young  Yale  graduate,  Samuel  J.  Mills, 
who  became  pastor  of  the  church  there,  and  served  as  such  for 
more  than  sixty  years.  Soon  after  his  arrival  in  Torringford  the 
young  preacher  found  a  wife  in  Esther  Robbins,  a  beautiful  young 
woman  of  a  neighboring  town,  and  of  the  seven  children  born  to 
them  one  was  Samuel  J.  Mills,  Jr.,  later  the  student  of  haystack 
fame. 

The  speaker  then  followed  Mills  through  his  boyhood,  speaking 
of  his  dedication  to  the  missionary  cause  by  his  mother  and  of  her 
words,  "  Oh,  how  little  did  I  know  what  it  was  going  to  cost," 
when  she  received  the  letter  informing  her  that  he  had  decided  to 
enter  the  foreign  field.  His  father,  Mr.  Richards  said,  when  his 
son  told  him  of  his  intention  to  enter  the  missionary  work  was  at 
a  loss  to  know  what  reply  to  make,  but  finally  summoned  together 
several  friends  and  asked  their  counsel  and  prayer.  And  the 
story  has  been  handed  down,  though  Mr.  Richards  could  not 
vouch  for  its  authenticity,  that  one  brother  began  his  prayer 


HIE  HERO  OF  THE  HAYSTACK.  215 

something  like  this:  "  0  Father!  Brother  Mills  has  dedicated 
his  son  to  foreign  missions  and  now  he  is  mad  because  he  -wants 
to  go." 

The  life  of  the  son  in  academy  and  college,  the  prayer  meetings 
about  the  college  campus,  and  the  haystack  meeting,  when  the 
five  young  men  sought  shelter  from  the  storm  under  a  haystack 
in  Sloane  meadow,  and  while  the  lightning  flashed  and  thunder 
roared  pledged  themselves  to  foreign  missions,  followed  by  a 
prayer  of  which  missions  was  the  subject,  were  told,  with  interest- 
ing illustrations,  including  pictures  of  three  of  the  men  at  the  hay- 
stack meeting,  the  old  college  campus,  and  Mission  Park.  Then 
came  the  organization  of  the  "  Brethren,"  which  was  continued  in 
Andover  Theological  Seminary,  where  Mills  went  after  leaving 
Williams,  and,  finally,  the  meeting  of  the  fathers  in  the  Tabernacle 
Church,  in  Salem,  where  the  first  five  missionaries  were  ordained. 
A  good  picture  was  shown  of  this  service,  with  the  fathers  per- 
forming the  ordination  service. 

Mr.  Richards  then  described  Mills'  western  trips  and  related 
the  great  work  which  he  did,  encountering  many  hardships  and 
discouragements,  but  never  faltering  in  his  purpose.  The  territory 
which  he  traversed,  going  south  to  New  Orleans  and  north  to 
Philadelphia,  was  shown  by  a  map  thrown  on  the  canvas.  It  was 
while  on  these  trips  that  Mills  became  greatly  interested  in  the 
cause  of  the  Negro,  and  when  the  American  Colonization  Society 
was  formed,  and  it  was  decided  to  send  representatives  to  Africa 
to  select  a  place  suitable  for  the  establishment  of  a  colony,  Mills 
asked  that  he  might  be  one  of  the  men.  His  selection  followed 
and  he  set  out  with  Professor  Burgess  for  the  work. 

Like  all  of  his  previous  work,  the  mission  to  Africa  was  carefully 
performed,  notwithstanding  the  great  dangers  and  perils  that  were 
encountered,  not  the  least  of  which  was  the  malarial  fever  so 
common  in  that  country.  Mills  was  not  of  strong  physique, 
having  left  his  native  land  with  a  threatening  cough,  which  was 
nothing  more  or  less  than  the  old-fashioned  consumption,  and 
when  he  left  Africa  on  his  return  trip  his  health  began  to  fail  and 
before  his  home  land  was  reached  he  passed  away  and  his  body 
was  buried  at  sea. 

The  concluding  portion  of  the  lecture  described  this  scene,  and 
summed  up  the  results  of  Mills'  devotion. 

"  Just  as  the  sun  was  sinking  in  the  west  the  stalwart  sailors 
bore  on  deck  all  that  was  mortal  of  Samuel  J.  Mills.     Then  with 


216  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

tears  in  their  eyes  they  lowered  his  body  into  the  deep  as  Professor 
Burgess  read  the  funeral  service.  Ever  since  that  night  the 
waves  of  old  ocean  have  been  moaning  out  a  ceaseless  requiem 
to  his  memory  and  have  been  carrying  his  influence  to  '  the 
remotest  corner  of  this  ruined  world.' 

"  Only  twelve  years  from  the  haystack  to  that  grave  in  the 
North  Atlantic!  Only  thirty-five  years  old  when  his  career  is 
ended,  —  when  most  men  have  just  begun.  No!  not  ended,  for 
that  life,  filled  to  the  brim  with  usefulness  then,  has  had  an  ever- 
widening  and  deepening  circle  of  influence.  Truly,  '  we  live  in 
deeds,  not  years.' 

"  Up  in  the  village  cemetery  in  Torringford  stands  a  monument 
to  his  memory,  erected  by  his  sister  Florella.  There  sleep  the 
grand  old  father  and  the  loving  mother.  In  the  house  near  by 
his  father  had  received  the  letter  that  brought  the  sad  news  of 
his  death.  But  when  two  brother  ministers  came  there,  a  few- 
days  later,  with  a  message  of  condolence,  the  old  man  cut  them 
short  as  he  burst  out:  '  Oh,  my  mercies!  oh,  my  mercies,  to  have 
such  a  son  to  be  a  missionary!  '  For  more  than  thirty  years 
after  Mills'  death  the  location  of  the  haystack  remained  unknown, 
in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  President  Griffin  and  others  to  locate  it. 
It  was  in  1854  that  Byram  Green,  of  Sodus,  N.  Y.,  one  of  the  five 
present  at  the  original  haystack  meeting,  being  in  Williamstown 
on  a  visit,  located  the  spot.  He  was  aided  in  locating  the  place 
by  the  existence  of  part  of  the  maple  grove,  still  standing,  in  which 
they  were  accustomed  to  meet. 

"  At  commencement,  1854,  the  college  voted  to  purchase  the 
ground  surrounding  the  spot,  including  the  maple  grove.  The 
plot  consisted  of  ten  acres,  and  the  purchase  price  was  twenty-five 
hundred  dollars,  one  tenth  of  which  was  pledged  by  the  under- 
graduates. '  Mission  Park,'  as  it  was  henceforth  to  be  known,  was 
dedicated  August  5,  1856,  as  near  the  fiftieth  anniversary  as 
possible.  The  principal  address  was  made  by  Prof.  Albert  Hop- 
kins, though  many  speakers  of  many  denominations  participated 
in  the  great  missionary  jubilee  which  was  held. 

"  No  monument  marked  the  exact  spot  of  the  haystack  until 
1867,  when  Harvey  Rice,  friend  and  classmate  of  Mark  Hopkins, 
erected  the  now  noted  Haystack  Monument.  At  its  dedication, 
Mark  Hopkins,  then  in  his  prime,  delivered  the  dedicatory  address, 
beginning:  '  For  once  in  the  history  of  the  world  a  prayer  meeting 
is  commemorated  by  a  monument.'     Ninety-one  years  after  the 


THE  HERO  OF  THE  HAYSTACK.  217 

first  haystack  meeting,  the  World's  Student  Christian  Federation 
gathered  for  its  second  meeting  at  Williamstown.  Men  were 
gathered  there  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe.  A  Japanese  student 
presided.  There  were  young  men  not  only  from  France  and 
Germany,  Holland  and  Switzerland,  but  also  from  India,  China, 
and  South  Africa.  One  evening  these  representatives  from  thir- 
teen countries  and  five  continents  gathered  around  this  monu- 
ment. The  story  of  that  prayer  meeting  was  graphically  told. 
Then  each  young  man  in  his  own  mother  tongue,  so  strangely 
different  in  sound,  but  of  the  same  spirit,  cried  out,  '  We  can  do 
it  if  Ave  will.'  Then  the  Germans  sang  '  Ein'  feste  Burg  ist  unser 
Gott,'  and  as  the  meeting  closed  this  company  of  students  from 
many  lands  and  of  many  tongues,  but  so  strangely  united  around 
this  sacred  spot,  marched  away  singing,  '  Onward,  Christian 
Soldiers.'  The  listener  could  but  feel  that  though  the  body  of 
the  soldier  who  first  uttered  that  battle  cry  lay  buried  in  a  name- 
less grave  in  a  trackless  ocean,  his  soul  was  marching  on." 

List  of  stereopticon  slides  used  by  the  lecturer: 

Litchfield  County;  First  Law  School  in  United  States;  Lyman 
Beecher;  Birthplace  of  H.  W.  Beecher;  Birthplace  of  Ethan  Allen; 
Birthplace  of  John  Brown;  John  Brown;  Site  of  Old  Torringford 
Church;  Site  of  Samuel  J.  Mills'  Birthplace;  Birthplace  of  Brain- 
erd;  Connecticut  Evangelical  Magazine;  Morris  Academy;  Woods 
in  Torrington;  James  Morris;  Church  at  Morris;  Williamstown; 
Williams  College  ;  Mills'  Farm  ;  President  E.  D.  Griffin;  Rev. 
Amner  R.  Robbins;  Mills'  Account  with  the  College. 

Old  West  College:  Maple  Grove,  where  Haystack  Meeting  was 
held;  Site  of  the  Haystack;  James  Richards;  F.  L.  Robbins; 
Harvey  Loomis;  Mission  Park;  Bard  well  House,  where  prayer 
meetings  were  continued;  Torrey's  Woods;  Greylock;  Andover 
Seminary;  Adoniram  Judson;  Samuel  Newell;  The  Brethren; 
Neesima;  Dr.  Samuel  Worcester;  Ordination  of  the  First  Mission- 
aries; James  Richards'  Grave;  Scene  near  James  Richards'  Grave; 
Obookiah. 

Foreign  Missionary  School;  Obookiah's  Grave;  Mills'  Home 
Missionary  Journey;  Mills'  Signature;  Mills'  Desk;  Andrew- 
Jackson;  Mills'  Journal;  Sylvester  Larned;  Mills'  Compass; 
Taking  Possession  of  New  Orleans,  1803;  Africa;  Sunset  on  the 
Atlantic;  Mills'  Monument  at  Torringford;  Mission  Park  (Sloane's 
meadow);  Haystack  Monument  (old  cut);  Mission  Park  and 
Monument;    Haystack  Monument;   Thompson  Memorial  Chapel. 


EARTH'S  GIRDLE  OF  PRAISE. 

The  day  thou  gavest,  Lord,  is  ended; 

The  darkness  falls  at  thy  behest; 
To  thee  our  morning  hymns  ascended, 

Thy  praise  shall  hallow  now  our  rest. 

We  thank  thee  that  thy  Church  unsleeping, 

While  earth  rolls  onward  into  light, 
Through  all  the  world  her  watch  is  keeping, 

And  rests  not  now  by  day  or  night. 

As  o'er  each  continent  and  island 

The  dawn  leads  on  another  day, 
The  voice  of  prayer  is  never  silent, 

Nor  dies  the  strain  of  praise  away. 

The  sun,  that  bids  us  rest,  is  waking 

Our  brethren  'neath  the  western  sky, 
And  hour  by  hour  fresh  lips  are  making 

Thy  wondrous  doings  heard  on  high. 

So  be  it,  Lord ;   thy  throne  shall  never 
Like  earth's  proud  empires,  pass  away; 

But  stand,  and  rule,  and  grow,  forever, 
Till  all  thy  creatures  own  thy  sway. 

—  John  Ellerton,  1870. 

[Taken  from  the  "  Pilgrim  Hymnal "  by    permission   of  the  ^Congregational  Sunday 
School  and  Publishing  Society.] 


SERVICES  OF  THE  THIRD  DAY, 

Thursday,  October    11,1 906, 

AT  THE  METHODIST  CHURCH, 
NORTH  ADAMS,  MASS. 


The  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions 
was  formed  "  for  the  purpose  of  devising  ways  and  means,  and 
adopting  and  prosecuting  measures  "  for  promoting  the  spread 
of  the  gospel  in  heathen  lands.  Five  commissioners  from  Massa- 
chusetts and  four  from  Connecticut  "  were  to  adopt  their  own 
form  of  organization  and  make  their  own  rules  and  regulations." 

(General  Association  of  Massachusetts,  1810.) 


"  God  works  in  all  things,  all  obej* 

His  first  propulsion  from  the  night; 
Wake  thou  and  watch!     The  world  is  gray 
With  morning  light. 

"Aid  the  dawning,  tongue  and  pen; 
Aid  it,  hopes  of  honest  men ; 
Aid  it  paper,  aid  it  type; 
Aid  it,  for  the  hour  is  ripe." 

(Taken  from  "  Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress,  '  Vol.  III.] 


THURSDAY  SESSIONS.  221 


MEETING  OF  THURSDAY  MORNING. 

All  the  regular  sessions  on  Thursday  were  held  at  North 
Adams  and  in  the  Methodist  church.  The  strains  of  "  Holy,  Holy, 
Holy,"  opened  the  morning  devotions,  led  by  Rev.  George  F. 
Pentecost,  D.D.,  who  made  a  brief  address.  President  Capen 
was  in  the  chair.  One  of  the  most  important  episodes  of  any  of 
these  meetings  took  place  at  this  time.  It  was  the  appearance  of 
spokesmen  for  the  United  Brethren  and  Methodist  Protestant 
churches,  bringing  greetings  and  messages  in  furtherance  of  the 
proposed  church  union  between  those  bodies  and  the  Congrega- 
tional denomination.  Bishop  Bell,  of  the  United  Brethren,  gave 
the  reasons  for  such  union  as  they  have  been  stated  to  the  churches. 
His  announcement  met  with  enthusiastic  applause,  and  its  effect 
was  heightened  by  the  address  of  Dr.  T.  J.  Ogburn,  speaking  for 
the  Methodist  Protestants.  Prof.  Edward  C.  Moore,  D.D.,  of 
Harvard  University,  chairman  of  the  Prudential  Committee  of 
the  American  Board,  met  these  advances  wTith  a  cordial  response. 
Dr.  William  H.  Ward  and  Dr.  Gladden  still  further  encouraged  the 
growing  feeling  in  favor  of  this  union;  the  former  by  prayer  for 
its  success,  and  the  latter  by  offering  resolutions  (found  in  the 
report  of  the  afternoon  session)  which  favored  the  joining  of  forces 
in  missionary  work  even  in  advance  of  the  proposed  federation. 

The  remainder  of  this  morning  session  was  devoted  to  reports 
and  addresses  upon  the  Foreign  and  Home  Department  and 
Treasurer's  reports.  An  address  was  made  also  by  Rev.  Walter 
T.  Currie,  of  West  Africa. 


OPENING  ADDRESS. 
Rev.  George  F.  Pentecost,  D.D. 

There  are  two  theories  of  foreign  missions:  First,  the  old  idea 
that  the  world  is  a  sinking  ship,  and  that  it  is  the  business  of  the 
missionary  to  get  hold  of  as  many  of  the  passengers  and  crew  as 
possible,  and  save  them  from  destruction.  This  is  the  theory  of 
the  individual. 

There  is  a  larger  and  broader  theory  now  coming  into  use,  that 
missionary  work  is  for  the  whole  world.     The  cosmic  relation  of 


222  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

Jesus  Christ  is  to  be  more  emphasized,  and  rightly.  He  is  the 
light  that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world.  Preach- 
ing the  gospel  for  testimony,  as  well  as  for  conversion,  is  a  part 
of  our  work.  The  epistles  are  devoted  to  the  getting  of  the  gospel 
to  the  whole  world.  The  whole  New  Testament,  taking  up  the 
work  of  the  prophets,  is  devoted  to  the  extension  of  this  idea. 

God  now  commands  men  everywhere  to  repent.  We  Anglo- 
Saxons  are  in  danger  of  thinking  that  we  are  the  whole  people, 
and  that  the  heathen  are  people  whom  we  are  graciously  honoring 
by  sending  them  a  vest-pocket  edition  of  the  gospel.  But  in 
reality  we  are  but  little  removed  from  heathen  and  savage  ances- 
tors ourselves,  and  have  no  right  to  assume  this  position  of  superi- 
ority. 

We  have  something  else  to  do  than  to  bring  about  the  conversion 
of  a  man  here  and  there.  There  is  something  to  do  with  that  part 
of  the  world  that  we  do  not  convert  in  the  evangelical  sense.  No 
statistics  can  tabulate  the  work  that  is  being  done  by  foreign 
missions.  It  is  largely  the  creation  of  an  atmosphere,  the  bringing 
about  of  conditions. 

We  are  trying  to  export  a  Christian  civilization  to  the  Eastern 
world.  The  peoples  resent  our  trying  to  force  our  Western  civi- 
lization upon  them.  They  may  assimilate  a  part  of  it,  but  they 
do  not  want  to  adopt  it  as  a  whole.  It  can  hardly  be  said  that 
Western  civilization,  in  the  shape  of  commercial  methods,  and 
ships  of  war,  and  opium  trade,  is  Christianity. 

There  is  a  great  antagonism  between  the  Eastern  and  Western 
methods  of  commerce.  Our  statesmen  are  trying  to  force  our 
methods  upon  the  East,  but  they  are  not  successful.  The  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  thing  that  can  bridge  the  chasm  between 
the  two  civilizations  and  bring  God  and  the  true  light  to  the 
consciousness  of  the  pagan  people,  who  have  a  civilization  older, 
and,  in  many  respects,  better  than  ours,  and  in  some  respects  the 
rival  of  ours.  The  evangel  of  Western  nations  and  of  Western 
commerce  is  selfish.  They  go  to  get.  We  go  to  give.  Ours  is  a 
spiritual  and  heaven-sent  gospel  against  the  material  and  selfish 
gospel  —  if  it  is  a  gospel  —  of  the  Western  civilization. 


GREETING    FROM    THE    UNITED    BRETHREN.  223 

GREETING    FROM   THE    UNITED  BRETHREN. 
Bishop  William  M.  Bell,  D.D. 

Mr.  President,  Fathers,  and  Brethren:  It  affords  me  an  unspeak- 
able pleasure  to  bring  to  you  the  hearty  congratulations  of  the 
two  hundred  and  seventy  thousand  members  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ  and  the  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  our 
denomination.  This  celebration  of  the  one  hundredth  anniver- 
sary of  the  Haystack  Prayer  Meeting  has  a  significant  message  for 
all  the  churches  of  America,  and  they  feel  called  upon  to  pause 
and  consider  what  the  Spirit  would  now  say  to  the  churches 
through  that  historic  event.  American  Christianity  may  well 
gather  with  you  about  the  Haystack  Monument  and  take  upon 
her  heart  afresh  the  lessons  afforded  by  the  life  and  service  of  the 
distinguished  men  who  gave  a  good  and  sufficient  reason  for  the 
appearance  of  such  a  monument  on  the  campus  of  Williams 
College.  Inspired  and  led  on  by  such  noble  types  of  manhood, 
the  American  Board  has  well  wrought  in  the  actualization  of  the 
high  ideals  that  dominated  their  lives.  You  have  reincarnated 
their  noble  passion  for  the  spiritual  elevation  of  humanity.  You 
have  belted  the  globe  with  the  radiance,  light,  and  hope  which 
fell  full  upon  their  lives.  What  they  would  have  done,  but  could 
not,  because  of  their  limitations,  you  have  hastened  to  do,  with 
the  ever-increasing  facilities  afforded  by  God's  advancing  provi- 
dence. As  a  denomination,  we  have  not  forgotten  that  in  West 
Africa,  from  your  sister  society,  the  American  Missionary  Asso- 
ciation, we  fell  heir,  by  mutual  consent,  to  work  in  that  territory 
which  had  been  begun  by  your  people,  and  that  in  turning  it  over 
to  us  you  generously  followed  it  with  your  funds  until  we  could 
adjust  our  own  shoulders  to  the  added  burden.  By  virtue  of 
your  larger  patronage  and  wealth  you  have  gone  bravely  on  in 
the  great  work  of  Christianizing  the  un-Christianized  portions  of 
the  race,  far  in  advance  of  our  humble  contribution  to  the  world's 
evangelization.  We  have  never  lost  sight  of  your  banners,  and 
we  now  glory  in  your  success.  This  occasion  has  the  most  thrilling 
interest,  and  we  now  bare  our  hearts  with  yours  to  receive  the 
lessons  and  inspirations  that  fitly  come  to  us  at  such  an  hour. 

One  cannot  advance  a  half  hour  in  the  study  of  the  Haystack 
Band  without  feeling  the  call  to  deeper  personal  religious  experi- 


224  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

ence.  In  a  large  part  of  the  Christian  world  there  is  an  appalling 
spiritual  deadness.  In  many  places  the  masses  are  adrift  in 
maddening  spiritual  desolation.  Much  is  said  about  brotherhood 
while  hatred  rages.  In  far  too  many  localities  the  church  is  like 
a  great  steamship  tied  up  at  the  wharf  with  the  fires  banked. 
We  need  the  anointing  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Our  pulpits  must 
flame,  for  blazing  pulpit  fires  mean  great  days  for  Christianity. 
The  Church  needs  impulse,  power,  and  passion. 

We  fondly  hope  that  on  this  historic  occasion  we  may  be  able 
Avith  you  to  install  afresh  in  the  very  heart  of  our  denominational 
life  the  full  powered  forces  of  experimental  Christianity.  We 
crave  the  rush  of  redemptive  joy,  the  enduement  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  new  perspective  of  life,  the  vital  relation  Godward, 
the  complete  dominance  of  the  Christian  motives,  all  proceeding 
from  our  ascended  and  glorified  Lord.  Faith  and  love  are  ever 
assuring  us  that  Christianity  is  a  vivid  personal  relation  to  a 
personal  God.  Our  haystack  brothers  demonstrated  the  fact  that 
Christianity  is  a  life  of  immortal  energies  and  tremendous  poten- 
cies. They  were  inspired  by  the  flow  of  spiritual  gladness,  and 
were  made  ardent  in  their  service  by  the  glowT  of  the  divine  love. 
From  them  we  may  learn  the  value  of  deep  religious  experience, 
as  also  that  the  inner  experience  demonstrates  itself  in  the  outer 
life,  that  it  registers  itself  in  the  lives  that  are  held  up  and  sus- 
tained in  this  empire  of  gracious  supernatural  forces. 

We  may  safely  emulate  the  fervency  manifest  by  Dr.  Worcester, 
the  first  secretary  of  this  Board,  when  on  a  certain  occasion  he 
said:  "I  bless  God  for  making  Litchfield  County  ";  or  that  of 
the  great-grandfather  of  Samuel  J.  Mills,  who,  when  asked  how,  in 
his  limited  •  circumstances,  he  could  send  four  sons  to  Yale, 
answered:  "  With  the  help  of  Almighty  God  and  my  wife." 
Samuel  J.  Mills  passed  under  pungent  conviction  for  sin  and  into 
God's  gracious  kingdom  by  a  definite  experience  of  the  divine 
renewal.     He  was  able  to  cry  out:   "  0  glorious. sovereignty!  " 

His  was  a  strenuous  religious  experience.  His  mother  tearfully 
said:  "  But  little  did  I  know  when  I  dedicated  this  child  to  God 
what  it  was  going  to  cost  and  whereunto  it  would  end.  How  little 
I  knew  what  it  was  going  to  cost!  " 

Now,  after  the  heartiest  felicitation  on  account  of  the  growing 
ability  of  your  great  Board  to  serve  humanity  as  you  also  serve 
Jesus  Christ,  permit  a  concluding  word  as  to  what  is  suggested 
naturally  by  the  presence  on  this  platform  of  us  who  represent 


GREETING    FROM    THE    UNITED    BRETHREN.  225 

two  bodies  of  Christians  who  have  not  been  associated  in  the  work 
you  have  so  nobly  carried  forward  for  so  long  a  time.  Your 
speaker  most  heartily  desires  this  because: 

1.  The  reasons  or  occasions  for  separate  organic  existence  have 
in  many  cases  ceased  to  be. 

2.  The  tendency  to  multiply  denominations  in  the  United 
States  has  had  its  day,  and  an  ample  indulgence. 

3.  Any  denomination  may  reach  the  stage  in  its  history  when, 
having  made  its  contribution  to  truth  and  experience,  it  may, 
under  changed  circumstances,  honorably  discontinue  its  separate 
existence  and  acknowledge  in  a  formal  way  its  kinship  with  other 
bodies  of  Christians. 

4.  Any  denomination  may  go  to  seed  in  the  advocacy  of  usages 
and  peculiarities  which,  however  good  and  proper  at  the  time 
of  their  being  called  into  existence,  may  have  come  to  be  barnacles 
and  impediments  under  changed  conditions. 

5.  Our  divisions  have  led  us  to  magnify  non-essentials,  with  a 
corresponding  loss  in  the  fundamentals. 

6.  The  exigencies  of  the  hour  call  for  the  most  advantageous 
use  of  all  Christian  resources. 

7.  The  age,  being  utilitarian,  has  no  capacity  for  enthusiasm 
over  the  institution  of  a  new  denomination  for  the  gratification  of 
somebody's  ambition  for  leadership,  or  for  any  other  reason. 

8.  A  very  high  grade  of  influence,  efficiency,  and  enthusiasm  is 
coming  into  being  through  the  different  interdenominational 
movements  and  organizations. 

9.  The  needless  duplication  of  church  organizations  in  the  same 
community  is  becoming  a  stumbling  block  and  a  menace  to 
Christian  efficiency. 

10.  A  deserved  doom  is  passing  upon  everything  unfruitful  in 
church  and  state. 

11.  American  church  life  needs,  just  now,  a  consuming  and 
intensified  passion  for  the  essentials  of  Christianity. 

12.  Either  an  exalted  spiritual  consciousness  of  the  presence  of 
a  great  calamity,  or  the  near  approach  of  a  great  peril,  or  the 
appeal  of  a  great  enterprise,  invariably  suggests  and  points  toward 
the  heartier  and  closer  affiliation  of  all  Christians. 

13.  Unholy  rivalry,  strife,  and  hatred  among  church  people 
grieve  the  Holy  Spirit  and  forbid  extensive  revivals. 

14.  In  part,  our  divisions  stand  for  a  want  of  love,  of  deep  and 
genuine  Christian  experience. 


226  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

15.  The  whole  tendency  of  the  age  is~to~unification,  much 
business,  and  not  too  much  bookkeeping  for  the  business;  elimi- 
nation of  waste  and  leakage,  with  prodigious  pushing  for  large 
things. 

16.  An  inexorable  demand  that  the  highest,  holiest,  and  best  in 
the  keeping  of  the  race  anywhere  shall  be  universalized  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment. 

We  can  but  feel,  as  we  confront  the  mighty  task  of  making  Christ 
known  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  in  the  present  genera- 
tion, that  the  glorious  goal  will  be  brought  so  much  nearer  by  the 
happy  and  businesslike  unification  of  missionary  societies  and  the 
coordination  of  the  missionary  forces.  We  long  for  a  great 
Christian  militant  forward  movement  for  the  speedy  evangeli- 
zation of  the  world  even  in  our  day.  May  God  bring  it  to  pass 
for  his  own  glory.     Amen. 


GREETING    FROM   THE    METHODIST    PROTESTANTS.  227 

GREETING  FROM  THE  METHODIST  PROTESTANTS. 
Rev.  T.  J.  Ogburn,  D.D. 

Mr.  President:  I  am  fifty-six  years  old,  and  it  is  remarkable  that 
the  first  time  that  I  have  ever  been  permitted  to  worship  in  a 
Congregational  church  I  have  found  it  to  be  a  Methodist  meeting- 
house. But  somehow  I  feel  at  home  among  you.  Dr.  William 
Hayes  Ward  visited  one  of  our  conferences  and  I  heard  him  with 
great  delight,  and  after  he  heard  me  make  one  of  the  most  ridicu- 
lous speeches  I  ever  made  in  my  life  he  actually  hugged  me. 
Later,  I  addressed  the  union  missionary  meeting  in  Dayton,  Ohio, 
and  Dr.  Creegan  heard  me  talk  on  missions  and  he  hugged  me. 
So  I  am  beginning  to  feel  at  home  with  the  Congregational  body. 

I  feel  unable  and  unworthy  to  bring  fully  the  greetings  of  the 
Methodist  Protestant  Church  to  you,  but,  as  the  slender  dull  wire 
may  flash  along  its  line  the  light  and  the  power  and  the  energy 
and  the  intelligence  communicated  to  it,  so  I  may  speak  today 
plainly  and  simply  for  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church.  As  the 
tiniest  dew-drop  may  reflect  the  light  of  the  sun,  so  God  may 
help  me  to  tell  you  something  about  the  love  of  the  Methodist 
Protestant  Church  for  you. 

I  should  rejoice  if  I  could  just  tell  you  what  I  believe  to  be  the 
real  situation  as  to  the  attitude  of  our  church  toward  yours.  It 
is  my  duty,  as  secretary  and  treasurer  of  our  board  of  foreign 
missions,  to  visit  all  our  charges  and  churches,  and  I  think  I 
know  the  heart  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  denomination. 
There  is  an  overwhelming  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  union  that 
has  been  referred  to.  But,  while  I  came  to  bring  you  these  greet- 
ings, I  did  not  come  to  talk  to  you  about  foreign  missions.  For  a 
minister  of  any  other  denomination  to  come  to  Congregationalists 
and  talk  about  foreign  missions  seems  to  me  somewhat  like  haul- 
ing coal  to  Newcastle.  You  do  not  need  any  talk  from  me  about 
foreign  missions,  and  I  have  not  come  to  talk  to  you  about  your 
history,  for  you  know  that  better  than  I  do.  But  you  don't 
know  much  about  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  because 
instead  of  writing  history  we  have  been  very  hard  at  work  trying 
to  make  some.  We  have  not  spoken  of  ourselves,  perhaps,  as 
we  ought;  we  have  been  too  timid,  too  retiring,  too  modest.  But 
I  should  rather  go  back  to  my  people,  my  brethren,  and  carry  to 


228  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

them  the  inspiration,  the  information,  the  zeal,  the  enthusiasm, 
the  foreign  missionary  spirit  which  I  have  inbibed  here,  and  diffuse 
that  among  the  Methodist  Protestants  than  even  to  bring  you 
the  glad  greetings  from  our  people.  Oh,  I  do  wish  you  could 
come  down  into  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  and  wake  us 
up.     We  need  you  and  we  are  going  to  get  you. 

I  shall  never  forget  how  I  felt  in  the  committee  room  in  Dayton, 
Ohio,  when  the  report  of  the  committee  on  creed  was  first  read 
by  your  great  Dr.  McKenzie.  I  looked  around  upon  the  com- 
pany composing  that  committee  and  I  could  see  the  tears  glisten- 
ing in  their  eyes.  I  saw  their  faces  flush  as  if  their  hearts  were 
inspired  with  unspeakable  joy.  It  seems  to  me  the  very  atmos- 
phere trembled  with  the  power  and  presence  of  the  spirit  of  God. 
I  thought  of  the  upper  room  in  the  Pentecost  season,  and  I  felt 
that  we  who  sometimes  were  afar  off  were  made  nigh  by  the  blood 
of  Christ.  In  that  creed  was  something  like  this  statement: 
"  We  believe  that  God  has  appointed  his  Church  to  make  known 
his  gospel  to  all  mankind."  Brethren,  on  that  we  can  unite,  if 
on  nothing  else.  Nothing  can  ever  unite  the  different  forces  of 
God's  people  like  the  purpose  to  carry  out  some  great  and  all- 
engaging  and  all-worthy  enterprise.  I  believe  these  United 
States  would  never  have  been  these  United  States  but  for  the  ter- 
rible pressure  of  some  outside  foe,  and  the  people  of  that  day  had 
to  hang  together  to  keep  from  being  hanged  separately.  Some- 
thing like  that  must  bring  us  together  in  the  cause  of  Jesus  Christ. 

I  am  glad  that  our  denomination  knows  how  pleased  you  were 
to  hear  our  great  and  good  Dr.  Stephens  at  your  council  in  Des 
Moines,  a  year  or  so  ago.  Your  glad  appreciation  of  his  wise 
remarks  has  been  made  known  to  all  our  people,  and  we  are  very 
glad  to  find  that  you  Congregationalists  certainly  know  a  good 
thing  when  you  hear  it.  We  appreciate  your  appreciation  of  our 
brother. 

As  I  say,  on  this  great  work  of  foreign  missions  we  shall  unite  as 
perhaps  on  nothing  else.  We  shall  be  workers  together  with  God 
sooner  than  we  shall  be  believers  together  as  to  doctrine.  Those 
women  of  whom  the  apostle  wrote  had  some  difficulties  with  each 
other,  and  there  were  contentions,  but  they  labored  together  help- 
ing him  in  the  gospel.  You  may  put  four  boys  into  a  room  by 
themselves,  each  with  a  jack-knife,  and  they  may  swap  knives  all 
day  and  every  day  one  will  have  made  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  clear 
money,  it  is  said,  when  they  come  out  in  the  evening.     So  all  of 


GREETING    FROM    THE    METHODIST    PROTESTANTS.  229 

the  theologists  in  the  world  may  get  together  and  argue  doctrine 
and  discuss  doctrine,  but  every  one  will  come  out  at  last  believing 
in  his  own  doctrine  more  firmly  than  when  he  went  in.  But, 
brethren,  if  we  go  to  work  to  save  a  lost  world,  we  have  to  get 
together;  we  shall  unite.  Never  will  the  Methodist  Protestants 
find  the  Congregationalists  and  the  United  Brethren,  never  shall 
we  find  our  brethren,  until  we  go  and  seek  our  lost  brother,  and 
there  we  shall  find  one  another. 

I  am  very  sorry  to  tell  you,  dear  friends,  that  the  history  of  the 
Methodist  Protestant  Church  in  regard  to  foreign  missions  is  not 
very  delightful  reading.     I  should  be  so  glad  if  I  could  fully  con- 
done our  failure,  but  I  know  not  how  to  do  so.     I  beg  you  to 
remember,  however,  that  we  are  not  a  wealthy  church;   that  we 
are  made  up  largely  of  rural  communities.     We  have  farmers  in 
our  denomination  who  would  board  a  preacher  with   a  large 
family  a  solid  month  rather  than  pay  twenty-five  dollars  a  year  to 
spread  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.     We  have  some  of  the  best 
people  in  the  world.     I  believe  our  Methodist  Protestant  Church 
is  the  very  cream  of  all  the  churches,  but  this  cream  sometimes 
needs  churning.     After  all,  you  Congregationalists  haven't  got  a 
great  deal  to  brag  of.    You  were  two  hundred  and  eight  years  old, 
I  believe,  when  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  was  born.    Your 
board  of  missions  is  eighteen  years  older  than  our  denomination. 
Congregationalism  was  one  hundred  and  ninety  years  old  when 
the  American  Board  was  formed.     We  have  done  more  in  the 
seventy-eight    years    of   our  history   than    you    Congregational 
brethren  did  in  one  hundred  and  ninety  years  of  your  history. 
We  are  in  the  early  stage  of  church  development.     There  are 
three  stages  of  church  life:   Derived  life,  sustained  life,  imparted 
life.     We  Methodist  Protestants  have  had  to  work  like  everything 
to  keep  ourselves  going.     One  trouble  with  us  is  that  we  have  been 
trying  to  convert  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  to  our  theory 
of  government,  and  no  sensible  teacher  on  earth  ever  had  duller 
students  than  we  have  had.     Not  long  ago  I  was  in  a  company 
of  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  I  told  them  I 
was  surprised  that  men  of  such  intelligence  and  good  sense  could 
not  see  our  government  in  a  better  light,  and  they  actually  laughed 
at  me.     We  seem  to  be  making  very  little  impression  on  them, 
but  I  am  glad  to  say  that  every  change  they  have  made  in  their 
form  of  government  is  toward  the  form  used  by  the  Methodist 
Protestant,  the  Congregational,  and  the  United  Brethren  churches. 


230  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

I  think  the  most  pregnant  theological  passage  I  have  ever  seen 
outside  the  Bible  is  this:  "  Jesus  died  not  only  to  save  men,  but 
to  make  them  worth  saving,"  and  I  should  like  to  add  to  that  the 
further  statement,  "  and  to  make  them  saving."  A  great  many 
of  us  have  been  trying  to  keep  ourselves  saved,  and  the  churches 
in  these  United  States  are  giving  $320,000,000  a  year  to  keep 
themselves  saved  and  about  $8,000,000  a  year  to  save  the  826,000,- 
000  of  heathen;  that  is  to  say,  we  consider  ourselves  forty  times 
more  needy  of  the  gospel  than  the  heathen!  Our  church  work 
has  been  laid  too  much  along  the  line  of  making  people  see  the 
importance  and  beauty  of  our  government. 

Another  thing,  we  are  a  poor  people.  In  1828,  —  less  than  one 
hundred  years  ago,  —  our  church  was  born,  and,  brethren,  we 
were  born  out  of  doors.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  people  found 
that  we  were  incorrigible  and  very  recalcitrant  children,  and  so 
they  said,  "  You  must  do  better  or  get  out."  We  did  better  — 
and  got  out.  We  didn't  have  a  home.  We  had  nowhere  to  lay 
our  heads.  No  foot  of  land  did  we  possess,  nor  cottage  in  the 
wilderness.  We  had  to  go  to  work  to  take  care  of  ourselves. 
What  could  we  do  for  the  poor  heathen  away  yonder  when  we 
were  so  helpless  and  poor  in  this  country?  But  from  this  small 
beginning  and  this  poor  origin  we  have  grown  —  this  Benjamin 
of  the  Methodist  Israel  —  from  a  handful  of  corn  in  the  earth  upon 
the  top  of  the  mountains,  without  any  church  home,  without  a 
cent  of  church  property,  and  with  none  of  this  world's  goods,  to 
a  membership  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  thousand,  with 
nearly  seven  million  dollars'  worth  of  church  property,  with  a 
thousand  members  in  Japan,  and  sixty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
property  there. 

Some  time  ago  I  dreamed  really  that  a  member  of  the  Methodist 
Protestant  Church  was  arguing  against  union  with  the  Congre- 
gationalists.  When  I  referred  him  to  the  great  foreign  missionary 
work  the  Congregationalists  were  doing,  he  said,  "  I  can't  see  how 
it  would  hurt  our  denomination  to  unite  with  a  denomination 
doing  such  a  great  work  for  the  heathen  world."  He  was  a 
sensible  Methodist  Protestant.  Some  time  ago  I  attended  a 
meeting  in  Indiana  where  a  United  Brethren  minister  brought  a 
very  high  stack  of  books  in  order  to  prove  that  the  Congre- 
gationalists were  Calvinists  and  that  we  ought  not  to  unite  with 
them.  Brethren,  I  don't  know  whether  you  are  Calvinists  or 
not,  but  this  is  the  illustration  that  I  use.     I  say,  here  I  am  in  a 


GREETING  FROM    THE    METHODIST    PROTESTANTS.  231 

deep  pit,  unable  to  get  out,  and  every  effort  I  make  to  extricate 
myself  sinks  me  deeper  in  the  mire.  There  come  to  the  top  of 
that  pit  a  Calvinist  and  a  Methodist  Protestant.  The  Calvinist 
says,  "  I  believe  it  was  foreordained  from  all  eternity  that  Ogburn 
should  never  get  out  of  that  pit."  The  Methodist  Protestant, 
with  great  tears  of  joy,  shouts,  "Glory  to  God,  I  believe  that  God 
foreordained  the  possible  salvation  of  every  soul  under  heaven," 
and  he  takes  it  out  in  shouting.  But  the  Calvinist  says,  "  While 
I  believe  that  it  was  foreordained  that  Ogburn  never  should  get 
out  of  that  pit,  I  believe  it  was  foreordained  from  all  eternity  that 
I  should  do  my  level  best  to  get  him  out,"  and  down  comes  the 
rope  and  up  I  come !  Give  me  the  Calvinist  every  time  if  he  only 
loves  God  and  does  his  best  to  save  mankind.  I  want  to  go  back 
to  our  Methodist  Protestant  people,  and  tell  them  how  orthodox 
you  are,  how  reverent  you  are,  and  how  you  can  pray;  —  I  have 
heard  no  better  praying  since  I  used  to  attend  Negro  prayer 
meetings  in  the  South! 

Brethren,  you  lost  a  great  missionary  about  one  hundred  years 
ago,  but  God  in  his  providence  gathered  up  the  fragments  and 
there  were  more  than  twelve  basketfuls  of  foreign  missionary 
influence  distributed  throughout  the  Baptist  denomination.  Oh, 
I  wonder,  before  God,  what  will  become  of  the  Methodist  Prot- 
estant Church  when  you  all  shall  join  us!  I  think  it  will  leaven 
the  whole  lump. 


232  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 


RESPONSE  TO  THE  GREETINGS  FROM  THE  UNITED 

BRETHREN  AND  THE  METHODIST 

PROTESTANTS. 

Rev.  Edward  C.  Moore,  D.D.,  of  Harvard  University, 
Chairman  of  the  Prudential  Committee  of  the  American  Board. 

Mr.  President,  Representatives  of  the  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren  and  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  Brethren  and 
Friends  of  the  American  Board:  One  of  these  bodies  of  Christians 
here  represented  had  its  origin  in  dissent  from  the  principles  of 
government  of  the  Methodist  church.  The  ground  of  that  dissent 
has  just  been  described  for  us  in  more  vivid  terms  than  I  should 
have  found  it  possible  to  use.  Now  we  perceive  the  fitness  in  the 
approach  of  this  body  to  the  Congregationalists  and  of  the  Con- 
gregationalists  to  this  body.  We  also  might  be  said,  at  one  period 
in  our  history,  in  our  relation  to  that  which  was  for  us  the  mother 
church,  "  to  have  done  a  better  thing,  and  got  out."  And  now  it 
is  possible  for  both  these  brethren  and  ourselves  to  do  the  best 
thing  of  all,  and  to  get  together. 

The  representative  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  body  has  made 
touching  allusion  to  the  smallness  of  the  achievement,  thus  far, 
of  his  beloved  church  in  the  matter  of  foreign  missions.  One 
who  reads  the  history  of  our  West  and  Southwest  seeks  no 
apology  from  the  men  of  this  communion.  He  knows  that  a  vast 
expanse  of  our  own  country,  once  the  frontier  of  the  gospel  as 
truly  as  are  the  foreign  lands  the  frontiers  of  the  gospel  in  our  day, 
is  at  this  moment  the  territory  of  Christian  communities  in  no 
small  measure  because  of  what  these  brave  and  faithful  men  and 
women  did  under  the  banner  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church. 
If  they  come  to  us  today  asking  to  join  with  us  in  this  enthusiasm 
for  the  foreign  work,  it  surely  becomes  us  to  recognize  them  as 
brethren  and  most  efficient  helpers  in  the  no  less  great  and  pressing 
task  of  our  home  field  which,  in  the  meetings  of  the  American 
Board,  must  never  be  forgotten. 

The  other  of  these  bodies  which  sends  us,  through  its  bishop, 
greeting  this  morning  is  descended  in  the  line  of  the  great  Pietist 
and  Moravian  tradition  to  which  the  whole  Church  of  God  on 
earth  owes  such  an  inestimable  debt  in  this  matter  of  foreign 


RESPONSE   TO    GREETINGS.  233 

missions.  This  church  also  has  done  in  heroic  fashion  the  task 
immediately  before  it  in  the  winning  of  the  South  and  West. 
They,  too,  have  done  that  which  their  time  asked  of  them.  And 
now  we  ask  that  they  join  us  in  the  doing  of  a  world-wide  task 
which  the  new  time  demands  of  us  all.  We  are  not  unmindful 
of  the  debt  which  our  own  church  owes  to  those  revivals  so  closely 
associated  through  Wesley  and  Whitefield,  not  to  say  through 
the  men  of  the  Great  Awakening,  with  the  religious  impulse  of 
the  Pietists  and  Moravian  church. 

It  is  fitting,  too,  that,  cherishing  the  highest  hope  concerning 
this  new  interdenominational  union,  we  should  meet  thus  upon 
the  platform  of  the  American  Board.  For  does  not  the  very 
name  of  the  American  Board  betray  the  fact  that  when  it  began 
its  missionary  career  it  meant  to  be  more  than  a  denominational- 
body?  Was  it  not  for  two  generations  more  than  a  denomina- 
tional body?  Did  it  not  draw  to  itself  the  consecrated  men  and 
women  and  the  devout  gifts  of  other  churches  than  our  own? 
Did  it  not  at  one  time  bid  fair  to  be  the  organization  of  united 
American  Christianity  for  this  great  task?  The  different  churches, 
with  their  denominational  boards,  have  had  their  mission.  But 
of  one  thing  I  am  assured,  that  we  shall  then  best  face  the  issue 
of  our  time,  whether  here  in  our  own  country  or  abroad,  when  we 
return  to  our  own  splendid  tradition  as  an  American  Board  and 
to  the  hope  of  an  American  church;  when  we  seek  to  forget  the 
divisions  which  have  grown  up  among  us  and  to  realize  once  more 
the  common  bond  and  the  common  obligation.  Without  for  one 
moment  asking  other  men  to  yield  convictions  which  are  precious 
to  them,  and  without  yielding  convictions  which  are  precious  to 
us,  we  rejoice  that  we  may  be  thus  united  in  the  great  work  which 
God  in  the  opening  of  this  new  century  of  foreign  missions  sets 
before  us  all. 

Therefore,  permit  me  to  return  in  fullest  measure  and  on  behalf 
of  all,  the  greetings  which  these  messengers  .of  the  churches  have 
brought.  Let  me  express  on  behalf  of  this  Board  and  of  the  de- 
nomination our  own  confidence  concerning  this  issue,  and  let  us 
lift  with  these  brethren  an  earnest  prayer  to  God  for  his  blessing 
both  upon  them  and  upon  us  in  the  great  work  which  is  waiting. 


234  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 


REPORT  BY  THE  COMMITTEE  ON  THE  REPORT  OF  THE 
FOREIGN  DEPARTMENT. 

Rev.  Raymond  Calkins,  Chairman;  Read  by 
Rev.  G.  H.  Ewing. 

Your  committee  to  whom  has  been  assigned  the  task  of  review- 
ing the  printed  reports  for  the  year  upon  the  various  missions  of 
the  Board  report  on  the  interest  and  pleasure  with  which  the  task 
has  been  performed,  and  submit  certain  considerations  as  a  result 
of  this  review,  as  follows: 

We  have  been  impressed  with  the  high  level  of  Christian  per- 
sonality among  the  missionaries.  The  unconscious  spirit  and 
atmosphere  of  these  reports  is  that  of  sober  courage,  quiet  persist- 
ency of  endeavor,  undaunted  zeal  and  godliness  among  the 
missionaries,  alike  of  the  medical  and  the  evangelistic  staffs.  The 
bravery  and  loyalty  of  the  women,  as  brought  out  in  the  report 
of  the  Umzumbe  Home,  in  the  Zulu  Mission,  is  reflected  every- 
where. 

We  note,  also,  the  ready  adaptability  of  the  workers  to  changed 
conditions,  as  evidenced  in  the  reports.  Everywhere  in  heathen 
lands  history  is  making  fast,  and  the  new  emphasis  upon  edu- 
cational work,  the  improvement  of  equipment  and  curriculum  to 
meet  an  awakening  heathendom,  show  a  fine  initiative  and  energy 
on  the  part  of  our  undermanned,  underpaid  missionaries.  The 
splendid  native  work  being  encouraged  everywhere,  except  where 
severe  home  retrenchments  are  making  it  impossible,  is  another 
illustration  of  the  progressive  attitude  of  the  force. 

We  note,  again,  as  a  most  encouraging  feature  of  these  reports, 
the  increasing  spirit  of  cooperation  and  alliance  for  the  protection 
and  furthering  of  common  interests  among  the  variously  denomi- 
nated mission  stations  on  the  field.  The  power' of  organized  effort 
is  being  made  increasingly  apparent  in  such  missions  as  that  of 
Ceylon,  with  its  great  group  of  native  helpers,  and  that  of  the 
Marathi  Mission,  which,  in  the  face  of  prohibitive  and  cruel 
retrenchments,  is  conducting  a  progressive  and  increasing  work. 

But  it  seems  to  your  committee  that  the  reports  indicate  that 
the  men  on  the  field  are  doing  better  than  the  men  and  churches 
at  home.     Our  support  is  not  commensurate  with  their  efficiency 


THE    WORK   OF   THE    FOREIGN    DEPARTMENT.  235 

and  devotion.  The  need  of  reinforcements  is  everywhere  seriously 
apparent.  Some  of  the  missionaries  are  breaking  down;  all  are 
meeting  increased  opportunities  and  demands  upon  their  time 
and  strength. 

It  seems  clear,  from  the  reports,  that  we  are  approaching  a 
crisis  in  European  Turkey,  Eastern  Turkey,  the  Madura  and 
Marathi  missions  in  India,  and  in  the  Chinese  and  African  missions. 
More  men  and  more  means  are  tragically  needed.  Where,  as  in 
the  Eastern  Turkey  Mission,  the  country  is  declining  and  poverty 
is  increasing,  the  need  of  better  home  support  is  most  imperative. 
It  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  in  several  of  the  missions  the  reduction 
in  grants  for  native  work,  necessitated  by  the  policy  of  the  Board 
and  the  failure  of  the  home  churches,  has  seriously  impaired  the 
force  and  efficiency  of  the  native  corps  of  workers.  It  seems  to 
your  committee  a  crying  shame  that  for  the  lack  of  a  few  dollars 
men  in  large  numbers,  already  trained  at  the  expense  of  the 
Board,  must  needs  be  sent  adrift  when  their  education  is  finished. 
It  is  at  once  suicidal  to  real  success  and  demoralizing  to  the  men. 

The  reports  are  a  revelation  of  splendid  and  heroic  effort.  Let 
us  meet  the  needs  as  well  here  as  the  missionaries  meet  them  there. 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  FOREIGN   DEPARTMENT. 

Rev.  Raymond  Calkins,  of  Portland,  Mb. 

Your  committee  has  been  asked  to  review  the  report  of  the 
various  missions  of  the  American  Board  and  to  report  to  you  the 
impressions  which  the  reading  of  these  reports  have  made  upon 
them.  I  would  like  to  tell  you  how  a  study  of  these  reports  has 
impressed  me  with  the  way  in  which  the  work  of  this  Board  is 
leveling  up  to  the  great,  accepted  modern  principles  of  foreign 
missionary  endeavor.  And  I  would  like  to  give  you  a  few  con- 
crete instances  out  of  these  reports  to  illustrate  how  the  whole 
management  and  prosecution  of  this  world-wide  design  is  based 
upon  these  well-understood  principles,  which  have  been  evolved 
out  of  the  experience  of  a  century  in  the  work  of  foreign  missions. 

Supreme  Purpose  of  Missions. 

The  first  principle  of  foreign  missionary  endeavor  is  the  purpose 
of  evangelization,  in  which  this  Board  was  conceived  and  to  which 
for  one  hundred  years  it  has  been  dedicated.     And  the  members 


236  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

and  supporters  of  this  Board  have  the  right  to  ask,  "  Is  the  great 
purpose  of  evangelizing  this  world  for  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and 
bringing  the  knowledge  of  Jesus  home  to  every  human  heart  and 
soul  the  supreme  object  and  purpose  of  this  great  missionary 
board?  "  Now  no  one  can  read  these  reports  without  being 
impressed  with  the  way  in  which  the  evangelistic  spirit  flames  up 
warm  in  the  breast  of  every  missionary  who  has  been  commissioned 
by  this  Board  and  the  way  in  which  the  spirit  of  evangelization 
today  possesses  every  mission  of  the  American  Board.  In  the 
midst  of  difficulties  which  it  is  very  hard  for  us  to  comprehend, 
in  their  isolation  from  such  centers  as  these  of  spiritual  oppor- 
tunity and  of  quickening,  feeling  as  they  do  the  reflex  influence 
of  the  un-Christian  aspects  of  our  Western  civilization,  depressed 
as  they  are  by  the  awful  reductions  in  material  aid  which  are  their 
lot  year  by  year,  and  all  around  them  the  great  multitudes  of  the 
yet  unconverted  world,  they  are  still  holding  loyally  to  the 
purpose  which  ever  since  the  apostolic  days  has  animated  the  true 
followers  of  Jesus  Christ.  Almost  the  opening  words  in  the 
reports  from  Japan  are  words  of  rejoicing  for  the  exceptional 
spiritual  opportunity,  which  the  sobering  effects  of  the  great  war 
and  the  tenderness  of  human  hearts  after  personal  bereavement 
and  the  efficient  work  done  by  the  agents  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations  in  the  soldier  camps  have  opened  up  before 
the  mission  fields  of  Japan;  a  greater  spiritual  opportunity,  in 
the  words  of  one  of  the  missionaries  of  the  mission,  than  has  been 
known  in  thirty  years.  Almost  the  opening  words  in  the  report 
from  the  Mission  in  South  China,  which  this  past  year  has  known 
a  period  of  special  difficulties  and  of  some  discouragement,  are 
words  of  rejoicing  that  in  this  year  no  less  than  two  hundred  and 
seventy  have  been  baptized  into  the  Christian  faith.  Almost  the 
opening  words  from  the  mission  at  Foochow  are  words  of  rejoicing 
that  there  has  spread  throughout  that  mission  a  real  revival  of 
God's  gospel  in  the  hands  of  their  own  Christian  laymen.  Three 
churches  at  Peking,  in  a  year  which  had  been  made  memorable  by 
political  and  economic  disturbances,  report  a  net  gain  of  234  in  the 
membership  of  those  churches.  We  should  have  to  look  very  far  in 
this  our  Christian  America  for  three  churches  in  any  one  city 
which  could  show  a  similar  record.  From  the  Madura  Mission 
we  read  that  their  36  churches  and  6,000  church  members  reported 
this  year  a  net  gain  of  277  in  their  church  membership.  The 
missions  in  South  Africa  are  aflame  with  the  evangelistic  spirit, 


THE    WORK    OF   THE    FOREIGN    DEPARTMENT.  237 

and  when  we  turn  to  the  story  of  those  far-off  islands  in  the  South 
Pacific  we  read  that  in  July,  1905,  the  Spirit  of  God  so  wrought 
upon  one  of  those  islands  that  hundreds  were  turned  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  Jesus  Christ,  and  one  of  the  missionaries  from  that  station 
writes  that  when  one  hundred  young  men  and  young  women  stood 
up  together  to  be  baptized  into  the  Christian  profession  he  felt  the 
reward  for  years  of  desperate  and  of  sometimes  discouraging  labor. 
If  any  of  you  have  come  up  to  this  meeting  with  the  question  in 
your  hearts,  "  Is  the  American  Board  still  prosecuting  its  primary 
purpose  of  the  evangelization  of  this  world  to  Jesus  Christ?  " 
you  may  be  assured  that  the  note  which  rings  from  every  station 
of  this  missionary  board  is  the  sweet  and  tender  note  of  the 
familiar  hymn : 

"Christ  for  the  world  we  sing, 
Christ  to  the  world  we  bring, 
With  loving  zeal." 

Use  of  Native  Agencies. 

The  second  great  principle  of  modern  missionary  endeavor  is 
that  this  work  of  evangelization  shall  be  prosecuted  by  the  native 
Christians  and  that  the  foreign  missionaries  shall  devote  them- 
selves more  and  more  to  the  labor  of  education  and  of  supervision. 
The  reasons  for  this  are  well  understood  by  all  of  you, —  the  diffi- 
culties of  securing  foreigners  enough  to  cover  the  whole  vast  terri- 
tory; the  difficulty  of  maintaining  them  even  if  they  could  be 
secured;  and  the  difficulty,  even  if  they  could  be  secured  and  main- 
tained, of  any  foreigners  really  understanding  those  Eastern 
populations  well  enough  to  bring  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  home 
to  them  in  their  own  language.  So  it  has  become  more  and  more 
the  policy  of  this  Board  not  to  increase  the  number  of  its  foreign 
missionaries,  but  to  increase  in  every  possible  way  the  number  of 
its  native  workers.  It  may  surprise  you  somewhat  to  be  told  that 
the  number  of  men  sent  out  from  this  country  by  the  American 
Board  has  increased  very  little  during  the  past  fifty  years;  but 
whereas  fifty  years  ago  there  were  only  124  native  workers  in  the 
field,  today  there  are  no  less  than  4,000.  This  has  become  the 
settled  policy  of  the  American  Board.  And  now  try  to  conceive 
the  heroic  labor  and  the  great  difficulty  of  evolving  out  of  the  non- 
Christian  populations  of  the  East,  men  and  women  intellectually 
strong  enough  to  become  the  leaders  and  teachers  of  their  people, 
who,  at  the  same  time,  are  willing  to  endure  the  odium  which  the 


238  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

acceptance  of  Christianity  brings  upon  them;  who  are  morally 
strong  enough  to  withstand  the  temptations  of  being  drawn  back 
into  the  old  life,  and  who  are  spiritually  of  the  stuff  of  which 
martyrs  are  made.  Let  anybody  try  to  frame  to  himself  the 
difficulties  of  such  a  proposition  as  that,  and  he  would  be  pre- 
pared to  be  told  that  not  yet  have  our  educational  institutions  in 
the  East  been  able  to  train  and  raise  up  a  sufficient  body  of  native 
helpers  to  carry  on  the  work  of  this  great  Board.  What,  then,  is 
his  surprise  when  he  turns  to  these  reports  to  discover  instead  the 
tragedy  of  the  missionary's  success, —  he  discovers  that  schools 
have  been  so  admirably  equipped  and  coordinated  and  filled  with 
God's  Holy  Spirit  that  they  are  yearly  preparing  more  men  abso- 
lutely qualified  to  be  preachers  of  Christ  to  their  own  people, 
than  dollars  and  cents  can  be  found  in  opulent  Christian  America 
with  which  to  support  them.  Could  such  a  result  as  that  possibly 
have  been  foreseen?  Given  the  missionary  sent  out  alone  to  his 
perilous  and  to  his  difficult  task,  and  given  America  which  in  one 
hundred  years  was  destined  to  accumulate  more  wealth  than  the 
whole  Christian  world  had  accumulated  in  the  preceding  eighteen 
hundred  years, —  could  it  possibly  have  been  foreseen  that  the 
missionary  should  so  have  succeeded  in  his  task  as  to  place  too 
heavy  a  financial  burden  upon  his  Christian  brother  at  home? 
Yet  this  is  precisely  what  we  find.  From  every  mission  of  this 
Board  there  come  to  us  the  cries  of  surprise  and  of  wonder  from 
those  who  rightly  feel  themselves  deserted  at  their  posts,  which 
ought  to  fill  the  hearts  of  all  of  us  with  self-reproach.  Do  you 
think  it  is  possible  for  us  to  conceive  what  it  has  meant  this  past 
year  for  the  mission  in  Mexico  to  have  discharged  from  the  service, 
for  want  of  funds,  their  first  convert  and  their  first  ordained  mis- 
sionary and  a  native  worker  who  has  been  twenty  years  in  their 
Christian  service?  Can  we  possibly  understand  what  it  has 
meant  for  the  Madura  Mission  this  past  year  to  have  dismissed 
from  their  service  forty-three  native  workers  who  have  been 
trained  up  by  the  labor  of  years  to  be  teachers  and  preachers  to 
their  people?  Can  you  possibly  understand  what  it  means  for 
even  a  man  of  Dr.  Hume's  magnificant  courage  and  undaunted 
spirit  to  see  a  boy  whom  he  has  educated  for  fifteen  consecutive 
years,  until  he  graduates  at  last  from  the  theological  school,  ready 
to  go  as  a  messenger  to  his  people,  dismissed  from  the  service 
because  fifty  dollars  cannot  be  found  in  all  America  to  commis- 
sion him  for  his  Christlike  task?     I  believe  it  to  be  impossible 


THE    WORK   OF    THE    FOREIGN    DEPARTMENT.  239 

for  anybody  to  understand  just  what  this  means  for  the  foreign 
missionary. 

But  let  me  tell  you  what  it  means  to  us.  Such  a  policy  as  this 
means  absolutely  the  halting  of  the  forward  movement  to  win 
this  world  for  Christ.  Retrenchment  strikes  first  at  the  native 
arm  of  the  service.  It  means  that  villages  are  abandoned,  that 
outstations  are  surrendered,  that  preaching  to  non-Christian 
adults  is  discontinued.  It  means  that  the  missionaries  are  forced 
to  devote  their  efforts  to  the  educating  of  the  already  Christian 
community.  I  feel  that  if  these  facts  could  be  brought  home  to 
the  intelligence  and  to  the  conscience  of  the  American  churches 
they  would  not  suffer  the  forward  movement  of  the  Christian 
army  to  be  halted,  when  the  additional  contribution  by  each  church 
member  of  one  street-car  fare  every  day  of  the  year  would  put 
into  commission  every  native  worker  who  can  be  trained  by  the 
Christian  institutions  of  this  American  Board. 

A  Well-Rounded  Gospel. 

The  third  great  principle  of  foreign  missionary  endeavor  is 
this:  That  the  whole  gospel  shall  be  presented  to  the  non-Chris- 
tian world;  that  we  shall  not  offer  to  others  less  of  a  gospel  than 
we  possess  for  ourselves;  that  the  message  of  Jesus  shall  not  be 
abbreviated,  but  that  the  whole  world  shall  be  given  to  under- 
stand that  there  is  no  other  name  by  which  we  shall  be  saved, 
not  only  for  the  world  that  is  to  come,  but  also  for  the  world  that 
now  is.  And  that  is  the  complete  gospel  which  the  American 
Board  today  is  offering  to  the  Eastern  world.  It  is  saying  to  the 
sick  of  the  palsy,  as  Jesus  said,  not  only,  "  Thy  sins  be  forgiven 
thee,"  but  also,  "Take  up  thy  bed  and  walk."  It  is  not  only 
proclaiming  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord,  and  not  only  preach- 
ing the  gospel  of  good  tidings  to  the  poor,  but  it  is  also  literally 
opening  the  eyes  of  the  blind  and  releasing  the  captive  and  setting 
at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised.  One's  heart  is  filled  with  cour- 
age and  even  with  wonder,  when  one  opens  these  reports,  to  see 
how  magnificently  full-orbed  the  gospel  is  which,  with  such  meager 
resources,  the  missionaries  of  this  board  are  offering  to  the  great 
non-Christian  world.  Does  a  famine  break  out  in  India?  The 
missionaries  of  the  American  Board  in  India  are  not  only  seeking 
to  train  up  the  orphans  that  are  left  by  the  famine,  but  they  are 
inventing  new  looms  and  making  new  provisions  so  that  the 
people  when  the  next  famine  comes  shall  be  able  to  support  them- 


240  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

selves.  Has  a  famine  broken  out  in  Japan  this  past  year?  Your 
missionaries  have  distributed  no  less  than  one  hundred  and  thir- 
teen thousand  dollars  in  the  work  of  relief,  and  the  orphanage  at 
Okayama  today  shelters  no  less  than  one  thousand  orphans.  Does 
opium  make  terrible  ravages  in  China?  The  mission  at  Shansi  is  not 
only  speaking  words  of  comfort  to  the  sinner,  but  it  is  setting  its 
face  against  the  sin  and  is  opening  refuges  whereby  those  who  are 
the  victims  of  this  accursed  habit  shall  be  restored  to  a  full  and 
a  healthful  manhood.  Is  leprosy  still  the  dread  disease  of  the 
East?  In  two  hospitals  in  India  today  there  are  no  less  than 
one  hundred  and  eighty  leprous  patients.  Is  blindness  still  the 
curse  of  the  East  as  it  was  in  our  Lord's  day?  It  cheers  one  to 
read  that  the  same  modern  inventions  for  the  education  of  the 
blind,  the  methods  of  Braille  and  of  industrial  training,  are  being 
used  also  by  our  missionaries  in  the  East.  Is  China  on  the  eve 
of  a  great  intellectual  awakening?  Nowhere  in  America  can  be 
found  a  finer  system  of  free  public  lectures  than  today  exists  in 
Peking,  conducted  by  the  missionaries  of  your  own  Board,  whereby 
the  people,  without  regard  to  race  or  creed,  are  given  an  oppor- 
tunity to  satisfy  the  hunger  and  thirst  for  the  knowledge  which 
God  is  willing  everywhere  to  give  his  children. 

Now,  if  there  is  any  one  who  says,  "All  this  is  very  beautiful, 
but  all  this  ought  to  be  secondary  to  the  work  of  evangelization, 
ought  not  even  to  be  undertaken  until  the  world  first  has  been 
evangelized,"  there  are  two  things  always  to  be  remembered, 
first,  that  the  medical,  industrial,  and  educational  work  is  essential 
to  evangelization,  and,  secondly,  that  it  is  always  accompanied 
by  evangelization.  It  is  essential  to  evangelization,  because  it  is 
the  God-given  way  whereby  suspicion  is  being  allayed  and  preju- 
dice is  being  removed  and  barriers  are  being  broken  down  which 
still  divide  Christians  from  their  Eastern  neighbors.  The  East- 
erner may  hesitate  to  go  to  a  Christian  chapel  to  worship,  but  he 
will  go  to  a  Christian  school  to  be  educated,  he  will  go  to  an 
industrial  school  to  be  trained,  and  he  will  go  to  a  hospital  to  be 
healed.  "  Our  college,"  writes  one  of  the  missionaries  from  India, 
"is  absolutely  the  only  place  where  high-caste  Hindoos  and  where 
Mohammedans  will  come  together  with  Christians."  "  Our 
industrial  plant,"  so  reads  a  report  from  South  Africa,  "  is  our 
very  best  way  of  reaching  the  natives  in  this  great  empire."  Let 
the  American  Board  relax  its  work  in  hospitals  and  schools  and 
industrial  centers  of  training,  and  it  will  be  relaxing  its  growing 


THE    WORK   OF   THE    FOREIGN    DEPARTMENT.  241 

grip  upon  the  most  enlightened  minds  in  the  East.  Then,  too, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  this  work  is  accompanied  always  by 
evangelization.  Not  a  teacher  in  a  school  but  is  seeking  to  plant 
in  her  pupils  hearts  "  the  wonderful  words  of  life."  Not  a  medi- 
cal missionary  but  is  seeking  by  night  and  by  day  to  cure  men's 
souls  with  the  same  devotion  with  which  he  seeks  to  heal  their 
bodies.  If  a  hospital  does  not  have  a  chapel  connected  with  it, 
it  is  only  for  want  of  space.  And  the  most  significant  spiritual 
awakenings  which  the  missions  have  known  have  been  in  the 
Christian  schools  of  the  East.  Thus  it  is  literally  true  that  in  the 
stroke  of  every  hammer,  in  the  noise  of  every  loom,  and  in  every 
lesson  that  is  taught  can  be  heard  by  him  who  listens  the  voice 
of  Jesus  calling  the  East  to  himself. 

Cooperation. 

The  fourth  principle  of  modern  foreign  missionary  endeavor  is 
this:  That  there  shall  be  cooperation  and  understanding  between 
the  different  missionary  boards  in  the  East;  for  if  the  spectacle 
of  church  competition  at  home  has  become  intolerable,  the  spec- 
tacle of  missionary  competition  abroad  has  become  impossible. 
The  growing  appreciation  of  the  spirit  of  Christ  and  the  necessary 
requirements  of  economy  have  made  it  absolutely  indispensable 
that  missionary  boards  should  be  working  together;  and  if  any 
one  asks  what  the  American  Board  is  doing  in  this  great  work  of 
cooperative  Christian  missions,  he  may  find  his  heart  filled  with 
gratitude  and  with  admiration  for  the  policy  of  this  Board  and  for 
the  Christlike  character  of  its  missionaries. 

I  can  only  give  you  a  few  specific  instances  of  the  great  co- 
operative work  of  our  American  Board  abroad.  From  Micronesia 
comes  the  story  of  how  German  missions  are  cooperating  with  our 
American  missions  in  the  evangelization  of  those  islands.  From 
South  Africa  comes  the  word  that  all  the  missions  are  planning  for 
the  erection  of  a  Christian  college,  one  college,  to  which  shall  be 
sent  the  graduates  of  all  the  different  denominational  schools. 
In  India  today  there  exists  a  Board  of  Arbitration  of  all  the  differ- 
ent missions  in  India,  to  adjudicate  difficulties  that  may  arise, 
to  remove  all  friction,  and  to  see  that  the  common  Christian  work 
is  carried  forward  in  cooperative  measure.  This  last  year? in 
Southern  India  —  in  July,  1905  —  fifty-six  accredited  delegates 
came  together  from  the  missions  of  the  London  Missionary 
Society  and  from  our  Madura  and  Ceylon  missions,  and  there 


242  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

formed  an  ecclesiastical  union,  with  a  standing  committee,  which 
should  communicate  with  the  synod  of  the  United  Church  and 
the  Presbyterian  body  of  South  India  with  reference  to  joining 
in  the  same  union.  When  one  opens  the  reports  from  China  he 
finds  stories  of  cooperation  on  every  page.  He  finds  in  the  South 
China  mission  of  the  American  Board  the  missionaries  uniting 
with  the  United  Brethren  in  a  common  training  school.  In  Foo- 
chow  he  discovers  a  Christian  Revival  Society  which  represents 
all  the  local  mission  boards.  In  Peking  he  discovers  a  Union 
Medical  College.  In  Tungcho  he  discovers  a  Union  Theological 
School.  At  Tientsin  and  Pao  Ting-fu  he  discovers  a  careful 
delimitation  of  all  the  territory,  which  has  included  the  surren- 
dering by  the  American  Board  of  certain  villages  where  the  native 
Christians  themselves  protested  against  the  transference  to 
another  mission.  No  one  can  read  the  story  of  what  your  mis- 
sionaries are  doing  abroad  without  believing  from  his  heart  that 
everything  that  can  be  done  in  a  Christian  way  to  cooperate  with 
all  other  Christians  is  being  done  by  the  American  Board. 

Native  Christian  Churches. 

And  now,  the  last  principle  of  modern  foreign  missions  is 
this:  It  is  a  word  which  has  more  than  once  been  spoken  from 
this  platform  and  for  which  I  believe  this  centennial  meeting 
will  become  memorable.  It  is  the  bold  annunciation  of  the  truth 
that  foreign  missions  exist  for  the  purpose,  not  of  superimposing 
upon  the  East  the 'rites,  the  institutions,  or  the  formulated  con- 
fessions of  faith  of  the  West,  but  that  foreign  missions  exist 
for  the  purpose  of  implanting  within  the  East  the  undivided 
essence  of  the  Christian  truth  and  then  trusting  to  God's  Holy 
Spirit  to  evolve  out  of  the  native  Christian  consciousness  its  own 
rites,  its  own  institutions,  and  its  own  statements  of  belief.  It  is 
the  bold  proclamation  that  any  other  form  of  missionary  endeavor 
implies  essential  unbelief  in  that  one  central  article  of  our  Chris- 
tian faith,  "I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost;  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church."  It  means  a  conception  of  foreign  missions  which 
declares  that  they  come  to  their  own  only  when  they  cease  to  be 
foreign  missions  and  become  home  missions.  It  is  the  assertion 
that  the  foreign  missionary  then  most  becomes  the  Christian 
missionary  when  in  him  is  literally  fulfilled  the  word  of  the  Master 
to  his  servants,  "  The  kings  of  the  Gentiles  exercise  lordship  over 
them;  but  ye  shall  not  be  so,  but  he  that  is  greatest  among  you, 


THE    WORK    OF    THE    FOREIGN    DEPARTMENT.  243 

let  him  be  as  the  younger;  and  he  that  is  chief,  as  he  that  doth 
serve." 

Now,  when  one  turns  to  the  reports  from  the  foreign  field  and 
asks  himself,  "  Are  our  missionaries  actually  carrying  out  so 
Christian  a  policy?  "  he  finds  himself  touched  in  his  inmost  soul 
with  a  revelation  of  the  Christ  like,  self-effacing,  and  self-subordi- 
nating Christian  spirit  of  every  missionary  who  dwells  alone 
leagues  from  the  place  where  you  and  I  are  getting  our  Christian 
inspiration  this  morning.  In  China  he  finds  that  the  mission- 
aries are  trusting  the  native  conscience  to  the  degree  of  giving  to 
native  missionary  societies  the  evangelization  of  certain  districts 
and  trusting  them  to  do  it.  In  India  he  finds  now  that  a  great 
missionary  society  has  been  formed  to  which,  it  is  true,  foreign 
missionaries  have  a  certain  advisory  relation,  but  to  whose  ex- 
ecutive committee  only  native  Christians  belong.  And  the 
ultimate  goal  of  our  mission  work  in  India  is  indicated  in  these 
words  from  the  report  of  the  Marathi  Mission:  "  Christianity  will 
become  indigenous  to  India  .only  when  the  native  Christian  com- 
munity supports  its  own  religious  and  educational  institutions 
and  sends  out  its  own  missionaries." 

But  it  is  in  the  Japanese  mission  that  we  find  the  finest  illus- 
tration of  this  underlying  principle  of  foreign  missions.  This 
last  year,  for  the  first  time,  native  Japanese  have  been  elected  to 
the  board  of  overseers  of  Kobe  College.  This  last  year  marks  the 
last  step  toward  the  absolute  independence  of  the  native  Japanese 
church,  which  assumes  now  the  full  direction  and  the  control  of  the 
aided  and  organized  churches  of  Japan.  It  means  that  the  word 
"  Kumi-ai  "  hereafter  belongs  only  to  the  truly  independent,  self- 
directing,  and  self-supporting  churches.  And  if  one  asks,  "  What 
do  our  missionaries  in  Japan  think  of  this,  having  the  work  of 
their  lives  all  taken  out  of  their  hands?  "  he  finds  his  answer  in 
these  words  of  Dr.  DeForest:  "These  churches,"  he  writes, 
■"  have  the  right  and  the  privilege  and  the  duty  of  evolving,  under 
the  direction  of  God  and  the  influence  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  a  Christian 
church  in  such  ways  as  shall  best  take  hold  of  the  social  and  the 
national  life  of  our  beloved  Japan."  These  words  to  me  mark 
the  highest  stage,  as  they  indicate  the  final  goal,  of  the  whole 
foreign  missionary  movement.  When  in  every  nation  there 
shall  have  been  raised  up  a  native  church,  grounded  in  the  faith 
and  filled  with  the  spirit  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  which  shall  in 
its  own  way  and  by  its  own  initiative  declare  the  truth   of  the 


244  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

gospel  in  terms  and  in  forms  which  shall  best  take  hold  of  the 
social  and  national  life  of  each  separate  land,  then  the  day  draws 
near  when  the  vision  of  the  apostle  and  the  dream  and  longing 
of  every  apostolic  spirit  since  shall  be  realized,  when  "  every 
knee  shall  bow,  and  every  tongue  shall  confess  that  Jesus  Christ 
is  Lord." 

We  shall  all  go  home  from  this  great  anniversary  occasion 
touched  in  many  ways,  and  influenced  from  many  directions,  to 
consecrate  ourselves  anew  to  the  great  work  of  Christian  missions. 
But  if  one  will  ponder  deeply,  he  will  find  that  one  of  the  strongest 
appeals  that  can  come  to  him  to  support  to  the  limit  of  his  strength 
the  work  of  the  American  Board,  is  the  persuasion  of  the  noble 
way  in  which  these  five  great  principles  of  foreign  missions  at 
their  best  are  being  put  into  constant  operation  in  every  mission 
of  this  Board  by  your  servants  at  home,  and  by  your  beautiful 
and  consecrated  missionaries  abroad. 


THE    WEST    CENTRAL    AFRICA    MISSION.  245 


THE  WEST  CENTRAL  AFRICA  MISSION. 
Rev.  Walter  T.  Currie. 

The  children  of  this  Board  in  West  Central  Africa  are  doing 
all  that  mind  and  heart  and  flesh  ought  to  undertake,  or  can 
wisely  carry  on,  to  extend  the  kingdom  of  their  Father  and  Lord. 
When  the  sons  are  found  enthusiastically  working,  the  daughters 
are  not  idle. 

In  1880  the  Board  made  selection  of  a  site  for  the  West  Central 
Africa  Mission.  The  district  chosen  covers  an  area  on  the  high 
plateau  of  from  one  hundred  to  three  hundred  miles  inland  from 
the  old  West  African  coast  town,  Benguella,  and  stands  at  an 
altitude  of  about  five  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  The  site  was 
wisely  selected.  It  certainly  is  not  a  health  resort,  and  yet,  as 
compared  with  most  parts  of  Africa,  it  has  a  salubrious  climate, 
and  white  workers  there  have  no  need  to  spend  their  days  in 
horrid  nightmares  of  ill  health.  Its  soil  is  capable  of  sustaining 
a  large  native  population  and  of  providing  most'  of  the  food 
needed  by  your  missionaries.  It  has  from  the  first  been  com- 
paratively easy  of  access,  and  in  future  is  likely  to  be  on  the  line 
of  one  of  the  most  important  railroads  in  Africa,  a  road  by  which 
most  of  the  trade  of  Central  Africa,  and  perhaps  even  of  the  Trans- 
vaal, will  find  its  shortest  way  to  its  best  market,  and  by  which 
even  your  missionaries  in  Beira  on  the  east  coast  will  be  able  to 
make  their  quickest  and  shortest  journey  to  England.  It  has 
been  a  district  of  strategic  importance  as  the  starting  point  of 
various  trade  routes  to  the  far  interior,  north,  south,  and  east, 
and  will  continue  so,  though  under  materially  altered  conditions. 
Granted,  therefore,  a  wise  and  beneficent  government  and  freedom 
to  work  for  God  and  the  welfare  of  humanity  in  the  land,  there  is 
no  better  field  in  Central  Africa  for  strategic  missionary  effort 
than  the  one  we  occupy. 

The  people  of  the  country  comprise  one  of  the  most  important 
branches  of  the  Bantu  race,  and  are  divided  into  a  number  of 
tribes,  but  all  of  them  speak  the  same  dialect,  and  that  dialect 
is  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  Bantu  language.  We  used  it 
with  advantage  as  far  inland  as  the  lake  region,  and  our  young 
people  have  used  it  northward  in  the  Congo  State  and  southward 


246  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

in  the  Barotse  valley.  They  are  by  no  means  low-down  creatures, 
incapable  of  progress,  such  as  travelers  have  sometimes  sought 
to  picture  all  Central  African  blacks.  When  your  missionaries  first 
went  among  them,  they  had  made  considerable  progress.  The 
time  had  come,  however,  to  give  the  people  the  gospel.  A  very 
short  residence  among  them  was  sufficient  to  show  their  unques- 
tionable need  of  missionary  help.  They  were  on  the  verge  of  a 
great  change.  Their  language  had  been  enriched  with  a  large 
number  of  words  from  Portuguese  and  various  native  dialects. 
Many  superstitions  had  been  brought  from  other  tribes  and  added 
to  those  which  originally  existed  among  them.  They  had  begun 
to  show  the  blighting  touch  of  some  of  the  worst  features  of  West 
African  coast  life.  Their  appetite  for  their  own  native-brewed 
beer  was  giving  place  to  a  growing  craving  for  the  white  man's 
rum.  Their  old  patriarchal  slave  system  had  changed  into  some 
of  the  blackest  features  of  the  Central  African  slave  trade.  They 
had  already  become  pupils  of  the  white  man,  but  their  teachers 
were  such  as  point  and  lead  the  way  to  the  darkest  hell,  and  they 
needed  teachers  —  white  teachers  —  to  show  them  the  way  to  a 
higher  life,  with  grander  purposes  and  eternal  possibilities.  They 
needed  Christian  missionaries. 

After  these  years  you  may  justly  ask,  What  has  been  done? 
Let  us  consider  briefly. 

Young  people  have  been  so  far  won  from  uncleanly  habits  and 
taught  to  do  household  work  that  though  they  cannot  be  counted 
upon  to.  prepare  such  rich  dainties  as  many  use  in  this  country, 
yet  they  can  prepare  and  spread  a  table  with  clean,  well-cooked 
food,  such  as  no  disciple  of  simple  living  need  be  ashamed  to  offer 
his  most  fastidious  guest.  Many,  who  never  dreamed  of  being 
able  to  handle  an  ox,  have  been  taught  to  take  untrained  cattle 
of  the  country  and  break  them  in  to  be  milked,  or  work,  either  in 
the  saddle  or  yoke,  and  we  can  now  send  pure  natives  on  a  trek 
in  charge  of  our  large  wagon  drawn  by  twenty  head  of  cattle, 
though  they  were  not  a  cattle-loving  or  cattle-raising  people. 
Young  men  have  been  taught  to  build  neat  and  comfortable 
houses  far  in  advance  of  anything  their  forefathers  dwelt  in,  and 
fully  as  good  as  the  ordinary  trader  in  the  country  occupies. 
Young  men  have  been  taught  to  go  into  the  bush,  cut  down  a  tree, 
saw  it  into  boards,  and  from  them  make  neat  paneled  doors  as 
strongly  and  well  made  as  three  fourths  of  the  doors  swinging  on 
hinges  in  this  country.     Much  other  work  also  in  this  line  they  do, 


THE    WEST   CENTRAL    AFRICA    MISSION.  247 

for  which  there  has  been  a  growing  demand  from  native  chiefs  and 
white  traders. 

From  the  mission  presses  a  local  paper,  printed  by  natives  in 
the  native  dialect,  goes  out  monthly  to  an  increasingly  large  num- 
ber of  subscribers;  and  text-books,  hymns,  gospels,  etc.,  are  pro- 
duced to  meet  the  needs  of  our  pupils  and  adherents.  Black- 
smiths have  been  trained  to  do  neater  and  larger  work  than  was 
ever  done  in  the  native  smithies.  Brickmakers  turn  out  a  good 
supply  of  bricks  to  use  in  building, —  to  the  great  saving  of  the 
forests. 

While  these  things  have  been  done,  the  weightier  matters  have 
not  been  left  undone.  All  such  work  has  been  regarded  as  no 
insignificant  aid  to  the  furtherance  of  the  great  and  specific  work. 
Your  missionaries  have  used  such  means  as  helps  in  reaching, 
improving,  and  uplifting  the  people.  They  have  used  others  also. 
By  their  labors  the  native  dialect  has  been  reduced  to  writing; 
text-books  for  use  in  schools,  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament, 
part  of  the  Old,  over  three  hundred  hymns,  the  "  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress," and  other  valuable  literature  have  already  been  put  into 
print. 

In  connection  with  each  of  the  four  older  stations,  schools  have 
been  established  for  young  and  old  of  both  sexes,  in  which  a  large 
number  have  received  the  rudiments  of  an  education,  and  from 
which  trained  young  men  have  been  sent  out  to  open  and  conduct 
schools  in  localities  round  about  each  of  these  stations.  By 
the  last  reports,  36  natives  were  helping  the  small  band  of  white 
teachers,  when  in  the  field,  to  instruct  2,260  pupils  in  day  schools 
and  about  2,000  in  Sunday-schools. 

Almost  every  missionary  in  the  field  has  done  medical  work, 
not  as  fully  qualified  physicians,  though  certainly  not  as  unquali- 
fied quacks,  but  as  those  who  recognized  their  limitations,  yet 
saw  that  there  was  clearly  much  that  they  could  do  to  alleviate 
suffering  and  break  down  superstition,  and  did  the  best  they 
could.  Their  efforts,  furthered  by  the  very  efficient  services  of 
such  qualified  physicians  as  have  labored  in  the  field, —  during  the 
past  year  there  was  only  one, —  have  opened  the  hearts  of  very 
many,  paved  the  way  for  their  hearing  of  the  gospel,  and  helped 
to  strengthen  the  infant  faith  of  some  in  their  great  trials  of  ill 
health. 

Every  missionary  in  the  field,  from  the  time  he  was  able  to 
speak  even  imperfectly  the  native  dialect  and  wisely  undertake 


248  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

even  a  simple  part  in  the  great  work  of  preaching  Christ,  has 
done  so,  and  every  other  form  of  work  engaged  in  by  them  has 
been  carried  on  with  the  distinct  idea  of  helping  the  natives  to 
know  Christ  and  live  the  Christ  life.  Every  native  whose  life  and 
character  has  made  it  at  all  possible  to  do  so,  has  been  encouraged 
to  help  propagate  a  knowledge  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  As 
a  result,  every  station  is  preeminently  a  preaching  place.  In  thirty- 
nine  outstations  meetings  are  regularly  conducted,  and  in  a  much 
larger  number  they  are  held  as  opportunity  is  afforded.  By  Chris- 
tian natives  the  gospel  has  been  preached  from  Benguella  to  the 
farthest  inland  station,  and  from  there  to  the  regions  beyond,  as  far 
as  the  Barotse  Valley  and  the  Congo  Free  State. 

Healthy,  self-supporting,  Christian-propagandic  churches  have 
been  formed  at  four  of  our  stations.  The  fifth  and  remaining 
station  was  founded  only  last  year  on  virgin  soil,  and  can  scarcely 
be  expected  to  have  reached  the  full  measure  of  the  stature  of  a 
Christian  church,  but  it  is  a  healthy,  growing  child,  and  will  soon 
reach  maturity.  In  connection  with  these  churches  a  band  of 
sixty-six  native  helpers  was  employed  last  year  in  the  school  and 
evangelistic  departments,  and  not  two  hundred  dollars  were 
received  from  all  outside  sources  for  the  support  of  that  band 
during  the  year.  On  the  other  hand,  one  church  reported  three 
hundred  and  eighty-nine  dollars  of  native  contributions  during 
the  same  period. 

Last  year  at  the  anniversary  of  one  of  the  native  churches  some 
of  the  charter  members  told  how  they  were  first  brought  under  the 
influence  of  the  mission.  The  young  man  who  had  been  the  first 
boy  to  come  to  the  station  said  that  the  missionary  was  playing 
with  him  one  day,  and  then  asked  if  he  would  not  come  to  school. 
He  said  he  would  if  his  father  would  permit.  He  came  soon  after, 
dressed  in  a  big  white  shirt  of  his  father's.  It  was  a  great  crisis 
in  his  life.  The  missionary  put  him  to  sleep  in  his  own  house. 
He  was  terribly  frightened,  for  he  was  only  a  little  fellow,  and 
someone  had  told  him  that  the  white  man  loved  to  eat  black  boys. 
He  lay  awake  all  night  and  peeped  every  little  while  to  see  if  the 
missionary  was  sleeping,  or  getting  up,  and  was  greatly  relieved 
when  daylight  came  and  he  was  still  an  uneaten  boy.  He  found 
the  missionary  not  at  all  cross  and  so  remained  to  learn  the  truth. 
Another  said  he  had  been  sent,  during  the  great  native  rebellion 
against  the  Portuguese,  to  stay  at  the  station  with  some  animals 
belonsnna;  to  his  uncle.     He  liked  the  sinsins;  and  his  heart  was 


THE    WEST    CENTRAL    AFRICA    MISSION.  249 

touched  by  the  "  good  words  "  he  heard,  and  he  remained.  A  third 
said  he  had  loved  to  go  to  war.  He  had  been  in  three  battles,  but 
in  the  last  he  was  shot.  The  native  doctors  could  not  cure  him. 
His  money  was  gone  and  he  had  nothing  with  which  to  pay  for 
further  help.  Then  his  brothers  brought  him  to  the  white  man, 
who  received  and  healed  him.  While  at  the  station  he  heard  the 
truth  and  took  up  the  cross  to  follow  Christ.  Another  went,  on 
the  one  hand,  to  escape  being  made  a  native  doctor,  and  on  the 
other,  to  earn  goods  with  which  to  become  a  trader.  A  fifth,  who 
has  since  become  the  recognized  pastor  of  the  church,  went  simply 
to  earn  money.  They  were  tempted  by  different  kinds  of  bait, 
influenced  by  different  motives.  They  came  under  the  power 
of  the  same  infallible  Word.  It  changed  their  hearts,  and  led 
them  into  the  everlasting  kingdom  of  God's  dear  Son. 

A  large  work  has  been  done,  but  under  grave  disadvantages. 
Our  force  is  utterly  inadequate  to  the  demands  made  upon  it. 
Every  station  is  in  pressing  need  of  reinforcements.  We  ought 
to  have  a  well-equipped  institute,  established  for  the  training  of 
native  helpers,  an  institute  in  which  Christian  young  women 
would  be  trained  in  domestic  science  to  assist  in  establishing 
homes  of  sweetness,  comfort,  and  Christian  helpfulness,  an  insti- 
tute from  which  a  steady  procession  of  Christian  trained  agricul- 
turalists, blacksmiths,  carpenters,  and  other  mechanics  would  go 
forth  to  all  parts  of  the  field,  helping  every  phase  of  the  ordinary 
life  of  the  people,  an  institute  in  which  teachers  of  approved 
character,  intelligence,  and  undoubted  piety  would  be  educated 
to  meet  the  progressive  needs  of  schools  scattered  over  the  whole 
area,  an  institute  in  which  well  tested  Christian  teachers  of 
undoubted  ability,  and  above  all  things  of  unquestionabty  close 
walk  with  God,  would  receive  a  special  training  that  would  fit 
them  to  fill  the  positions  of  ordained  pastors. 


250  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 


REPORT  BY  THE  COMMITTEE  ON  THE  REPORT  OF 
THE  HOME  DEPARTMENT. 

Rev.  R.  W.  McLaughlin,  D.D.,  Chairman.  '' 

In  a  somewhat  decadent  fishing  village  on  the  Maine  coast  there 
is  a  rather  interesting  postmaster,  by  name  Captain  Jones,  who 
receives  the  mail  once  a  week  during  ten  months  of  the  year,  and 
during  July  and  August  receives  it  once  a  day  in  order  to  accom- 
modate the  few  summer  visitors.  The  speaker,  while  spending  his 
vacation  there  the  last  summer,  had  as  the  guest  of  his  family  a 
young  lady,  by  name  Mabel  Jones.  She  had  reason  to  believe 
that  a  letter  had  been  mailed  to  her  from  New  York  on  Saturday, 
and  so  on  Monday  evening  called  at  the  post-office  for  the  same. 
Much  to  her  surprise,  there  was  no  letter.  However,  the  next 
afternoon  over  came  the  postmaster  to  the  cottage  with  a  letter 
addressed  to  her.  Upon  inquiring  where  it  had  come  from, —  as 
there  had  been  no  mail  since  she  had  called, —  the  postmaster 
confessed  that  he  had  received  it  in  the  mail  of  the  night  before. 
But  upon  reading  the  address  upon  the  envelope,  he  had  been  so 
attracted  to  it  that  he  could  not  pass  it  on  to  its  owner.  "  For," 
he  said,  "  I  had  a  sister  by  name  Mabel  Jones,  and  she  married 
seventeen  years  ago  and  went  West.  And  I  hadn't  seen  this 
name  for  all  these  years.  So  when  yesterday  I  saw  the  name  I 
just  put  it  on  the  window  sill,  and  from  time  to  time  I've  looked 
at  it.  But  a  few  minutes  ago  it  occurred  to  me  that  you  might 
want  the  letter,  so  I've  brought  it  over." 

And  the  committee  felt  somewhat  in  the  mood  of  this  quaint  old 
postmaster  after  reading  the  report  of  the  Home  Department. 
It  had  not  seen  anything  like  it  for  seventeen  and  more  years. 
It  wants  to  put  it  on  the  window  sill  and  look  at  it  from  time  to 
time.  It  recalls  so  many  hopes  hitherto  unrealized.  It  awakens 
so  many  lines  of  thought.  It  raises  so  many  questions  that  must 
be  answered. 

But,  after  all,  the  report  does  not  belong  to  the  committee,  but 
to  you;  and  our  duty  is  not  to  look  at  it  and  yield  to  the  senti- 
ment of  our  hearts,  but  to  pass  it  on  to  you,  that  at  your  leisure 
you  may,  as  it  were,  tear  open  the  envelope  and  read  its  contents. 

But  in  handing  to  you  this  report  this  morning,  permit  us  to 


COMMITTEE  ON  REPORT  OF  THE  HOME  DEPARTMENT.  251 

summarize  the  same  in  about  three  expressions.  And  the  first 
is,  the  report  is  disturbing  because  of  a  revelation  it  contains. 
Since  reading  the  report  the  committee  has  taken  some  pains 
to  inquire  of  others  regarding  their  understanding  of  the  situation 
as  to  volunteers  for  the  foreign  field,  and  without  exception  has 
found  the  impression  prevalent  that  young  men  and  women  for 
this  work  were  abundant,  and  the  only  question  was  one  of  money 
with  which  to  send  them.  Not  so,  says  Secretary  Patton  in  his 
report.  The  supply  is  inadequate.  This,  the  committee  believe, 
is  a  revelation  to  most  of  our  churches,  and  must  be  passed  along 
the  line  until  our  Congregational  force  understands  the  situation. 

The  second  expression  the  committee  wishes  to  use  in  summa- 
rizing the  report  is  that  it  is  quickening  in  the  indications  it  gives 
of  far-reaching  plans  of  work  now  being  carried  out  on  the  home 
field.  Whatever  may  be  the  facts  regarding  the  individual 
members  of  the  home  churches  and  the  large  number  of  churches 
which  do  not  contribute,  it  is  not  true  that  our  officials  are  playing 
with  this  great  work.  When  one  keeps  in  mind  the  distinction 
between  a  business  organization  and  a  religious  society,  the  dis- 
tinction being  that  the  one  is  compulsory  and  the  other  is  volun- 
tary, it  is  little  short  of  marvelous,  the  high  efficiency  of  the  effort 
and  the  variety  and  number  of  the  agencies  now  at  work  to  make 
possible  the  results. 

A  third  expression  which  the  committee  wishes  to  use  in 
summarizing  the  report  is  the  ground  for  encouragement  which 
the  report  gives,  due,  not  to  the  results  aimed  at,  but  rather  to 
the  results  achieved.  The  committee  refers,  of  course,  to  the 
financial  returns.  Let  us  not  forget  that  apart  from  the  announce- 
ment made  by  Secretary  Patton  on  Tuesday  afternoon  the  report 
would  still  be  a  most  encouraging  one;  for  when  the  books  of  the 
treasurer  closed,  on  September  10,  there  had  then  been  received 
$913,159.64, —  the  largest  amount  in  the  history  of  the  Board. 
And  when  this  statement  is  analyzed  it  is  found  that  the  gain  over 
previous  years  was  due  entirely  to  the  gifts  of  the  living.  We 
need  to  return  to  the  good  old  New  England  days  when  no  one 
was  supposed  to  have  died  properly  who  did  not  upon  death  leave 
something  in  his  will  for  the  Board.  But  while  we  are  working 
our  way  back  to  the  old  legacy  idea,  it  is  cause  for  profound  grati- 
tude that  this  great  work  is  increasing  its  hold  upon  the  hearts 
and  minds  of  the  living.  And  so,  in  presenting  this  report  upon 
the  report  of  the  Home  Department,  the  committee  would  note  the 


252  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

danger  in  the  present  situation,  due  to  a  lack  of  recruits,  the 
weakness  caused  by  the  failure  of  many  churches  to  contribute, 
the  confidence  in  the  officers  inspired  by  the  evidence  of  thorough 
planning  and  wise  execution,  and  the  fresh  courage  aroused  by  the 
rising  tide  of  contributions  as  a  result  of  the  prayers  and  efforts  of 
all  those  identified  with  the  cause. 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  HOME  DEPARTMENT. 
Rev.  R.  W.  McLaughlin,  D.D.,  of  Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 

And  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  having  studied  the  work  of  our  Home 
Department  in  the  light  of  the  reports  presented,  I  am  led  to 
speak  for  a  few  minutes  on  the  question  of  the  home  church  as 
related  to  the  foreign  work.  This  subject  is  the  one  uppermost  in 
our  thoughts  at  this  meeting.  The  president  in  his  letter  addressed 
to  the  corporate  members  requested  that  this  theme  be  given  the 
place  of  prominence.     And  it  is  fitting  that  this  should  be  so. 

This  meeting  is  called  to  celebrate,  not  the  one  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  sending  of  missionaries  to  the  foreign  field,  but 
the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  beginning  of  a  definite 
impulse  in  the  lives  of  men  at  home,  the  outcome  of  which  was 
later  the  sending  of  men  away  from  home.  And  so  the  one  impor- 
tant question  for  this  meeting  is  not  that  of  the  planting  of  mission 
churches  on  the  foreign  field,  that  they  in  turn  may  become  mis- 
sionary churches,  but  the  maintenance  of  missionary  churches  on 
the  home  field  that  they  may  not  become  mission  churches.  The 
day  has  gone  by  when  it  is  necessary  to  argue  that  the  Christian 
Church  should  become  missionary.  The  day  has  now  come  when 
it  is  possible  for  us  to  say  that  the  church  which  fails  to  be  mis- 
sionary in  its  ideals  ceases  to  be  Christian  in  its  purpose.  So  then 
the  supreme  question  for  every  church  to  answer  is  simply  this: 
Is  it  a  missionary  church?  And  this  means,  do  all  of  its  members 
conceive  of  themselves  as  somehow  linked  with  God  in  a  task 
that  belongs  to  the  ages?  For,  after  all,  the  one  sublime  reality  and 
glory  of  the  missionary  enterprise  is  the  presence  there  of  the 
eternal.  There  are  phases  of  the  missionary  task  that  are  tem- 
poral and  limited.  But  a  man  has  never  caught  the  swing  and 
power  of  the  work  until  he  has  felt  himself  in  the  presence  of  a 
work  that  belongs  to  no  age,  yet  to  every  age,  because  it  is  ageless. 


COMMITTEE  ON7   REPORT  OF  THE  HOME  DEPARTMENT.  253 

It  was  Adolph  Harnack  who  said  to  the  group  of  students  in  the 
University  of  Berlin,  "  Young  gentlemen,  the  man  who  asks 
what  is  new  in  religion  is  not  the  man  who  lives  in  religion." 
And  nowhere  does  a  man  or  church  feel  more  the  force  of  this 
remark  than  when  engaged  in  the  work  of  ushering  in  the  kingdom 
of  righteousness  the  world  over. 

But  how  create  this  sense  of  the  eternal  character  of  the  work 
in  our  churches?  In  other  words,  how  make  our  home  churches 
truly  religious  and,  therefore,  missionary?  To  answer  this  question 
let  us  turn  to  the  best  description  of  a  missionary  church  in  litera- 
ture. Of  course  I  refer  to  the  description  found  on  the  pages  of 
the  New  Testament. 

And  what  do  we  find?  Three  great  facts  or  truths  that  stand 
out  distinctly  in  the  life  of  these  churches.  First,  wherever  the 
church  existed  as  a  missionary  church,  there  was  found  a  vital 
faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  alive  and  guiding  them.  There 
were  men  in  the  churches  who  had  seen  Jesus,  who  had  looked  into 
his  mild  and  magnificent  eye.  They  had  also  seen  him  seized  by 
an  angry  nation, —  his  body  crucified  and  placed  in  a  tomb.  And 
yet  he  rose  from  the  dead  and  ascended  into  the  heavens.  He 
was  the  exalted  Christ,  living  at  the  throne  of  God,  and  guiding 
them  in  their  task  of  conquering  the  world  for  truth.  This  fact 
was  the  first  great  motive  power  in  their  lives.  And  yet  by  itself 
it  will  not  create  a  missionary  church.  By  itself  it  gives  the 
church  but  a  vague,  transcendental  idea,  which  has  no  power  in 
the  world  of  actual  living. 

But  with  this  fact  there  was  another.  The  life  of  God  in  their 
lives  was  a  reality.  They  believed  that  it  was  the  privilege  of 
every  individual  to  experience  God's  life  through  Jesus  Christ. 
And  the  church  for  them  meant  not  only  a  group  of  men  and 
women  guided  by  the  unseen  yet  loving  Lord,  but  it  meant  a 
group  of  men  banded  together  by  a  deep  and  hidden  experience 
which  each  shared  according  to  his  needs.  And  so  Paul  writes 
to  them  that  they  are  the  temples  of  God.  He  hopes  that  Christ 
may  be  formed  in  them  the  hope  of  glory.  And  this  is  the  second 
great  motive  of  the  missionary  church,  —  an  experience  by  which 
they  taste  and  see  that  the  Lord  is  good.  But  this  is  not  enough. 
For  men  might  experience  the  God  life  in  their  souls  and  then  be 
led  into  spiritual  pride. 

And  so  the  third  great  fact  of  the  New  Testament  Church  is 
that  they  were  grouped  together  under  the  leadership  of  the 


254  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

unseen  Christ,  having  experienced  God's  life,  and  also  attempting 
to  live  the  holy  life  in  brotherly  fellowship. 

They  did  not  always  succeed.  Sometimes  failure  came.  Paul's 
letter  to  the  Galatians  and  Corinthians,  and  James'  epistle  reveal 
this.  But,  nevertheless,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  failure,  gradual 
success  came  to  them.  And  as  they  succeeded  they  became  mis- 
sionary churches.  For  a  missionary  church  is  one  that  attempts 
to  live  the  holy  life  in  brotherly  fellowship.  And  as  such  a  church 
is  formed  of  those  who  have  experienced  the  life  of  God,  therefore, 
the  test  of  the  fellowship  will  be  in  the  effort  to  make  possible  for 
others  this  experience.  And  in  making  the  effort,  the  guidance 
of  the  one  to  whom  the  experience  comes  is  sought. 

And  this  leads  to  two  thoughts  in  the  life  of  a  missionary  church. 
The  first  is  that  the  greatest  thing  any  member  of  such  a  church 
can  possess  is  a  religious  experience;  the  second,  the  greatest 
thing  any  man  can  do  is  to  be  loyal  to  that  experience.  And  to 
possess  the  one  and  do  the  other  means  a  life  consecrated  to  God 
for  the  service  of  man. 


COMMITTEE    ON    THE    TREASURER'S    REPORT.  255 


REPORT  BY  THE  COMMITTEE  ON  THE  TREASURER'S 

REPORT. 

Joshua  W.  Davis,  Chairman. 

With  customary  care  the  officers  of  the  Board  have  already 
distributed  copies  of  the  treasurer's  report,  inviting  perusal.  But 
with  the  later  glorious  news  of  the  complete  covering  of  the  debt, 
what  more  can  we  gather  from  perusal,  for  how  can  we  possibly 
enter  into  the  details  of  these  necessarily  condensed  columns  of 
dry  figures? 

Our  Lord,  who,  of  old,  sat  over  against  the  treasury  and  set  his 
measure  on  the  gifts  cast  in,  and  by  it  stimulated  soulful  gifts  for 
all  ages,  will  surely  touch  our  eyes,  so  that  neither  these  figures 
nor  anything  in  the  work  shall  seem  commonplace,  but  the  rather 
be  transfigured  and  reveal  the  real  inwardness  of  this  business 
document. 

The  garment  our  Lord  girded  about  him  in  his  daily  ministries 
was  of  the  common  native  cloth,  but  it  was  really  glorified  the 
moment  he  took  it  for  his  use  before  it  shone  on  the  Mount  of 
Transfiguration.  And  though  he  still  veils  his  glory  under  the 
homespun  robe  of  the  little  gifts  of  his  people,  surely  our  eyes  will 
not  be  holden,  but  we  shall  see  his  beauty  in  every  item  of  his 
gracious  working  in  his  children. 

Therefore,  with  a  deep  stirring  of  heart  in  thankfulness  to  Him 
we  note  this  year's  increase  of  gifts  from  living  donors,  through 
the  devotedly  earnest  appeals  of  our  secretaries,  missionaries, 
pastors,  and  other  leaders,  and  in  the  consecrated  response  of 
thousands  in  the  churches.  And  we  would  not  lessen  the  emphasis 
of  joy  and  thanksgiving  over  this  increase  when  we  add  that  it 
requires  an  effort  to  hold  ourselves  steady  in  faith  and  thankful- 
ness when  we  see  this  and  other  years'  gain  cut  down  by  the  falling 
off  of  legacies.  A  few  even  drop  the  unwise  word,  "  Legacies  are 
always  a  lottery,"  and  their  zeal  is  chilled. 

Look  at  the  facts.  Legacy  receipts  this  last  year  are  $10,000 
below  the  previous  year,  when  they  were  at  the  average  of  the  last 
ten  years  ($135,000),  and  that  was  $40,000  below  the  average  of 
the  previous  eight  years  ($175,000),  and  $82,000  below  the  average 
of  the  three  highest  of  those  eight  years  ($217,000) ;  and  that  very 
much  higher  range  in  general  legacies  twelve  to  eighteen  years  ago 


256  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

was  in  no  wise  due  to  the  Otis  and  Swett  legacies  of  over  a  million 
and  a  half,  they  being  wholly  additional,  and  separately  credited 
and  separately  used,  chiefly  for  enlargements  of  the  work. 

Certainly  with  this  weakness  at  this  point  of  "  legacies  as  a 
reliance,"  there  is  no  question  that  duty  requires  a  devoted  setting 
ourselves  to  the  creating  of  an  atmosphere  of  consecration  on  this 
line  of  bequests  as  well  as  of  generous  giving  during  life. 

Our  craving  to  see  immediate  results  will  not  make  us  at  first 
enthusiastic  in  such  a  slow,  though  important,  work  of  education; 
but  it  will  be  a  test  whether  we  will  humbly  place  ourselves  in  still 
further  sympathy  with  our  Lord's  patience  in  his  methods,  having 
already  begun  on  educational  lines  with  the  young.  Last  year's 
successful  effort  with  a  small  portion  of  the  churches,  intended  to 
be  educational  and  permanent  in  its  results,  will  continue  another 
year  and  require  our  ardent  cooperation;  and  it  is  intensely 
important  whether  these  two  years  of  special  work  among  the 
churches  shall  be  made  by  them  really  educational,  and  perma- 
nently upbuilding  of  interest  in  missions,  or  be  only  spasmodic 
in  effect,  requiring  repetition  which  is  weakening. 

But  to  return  to  the  specific  point  of  legacies,  it  is  an  important 
question  whether  we  are  laying  foundations  for  our  prayers  and 
efforts  for  legacies  in  deep,  earnest  thanksgiving  for  those  already 
received.  Some  have,  but  how  many  of  us  have  actually  presented 
before  God  one  thankful  recognition  of  legacies  received?  (It 
is  to  be  noted  that  the  list  of  "  Legacy  Funds  "  in  the  treasurer's 
report  is  a  reminder  of  the  many  more  legacies  that  are  not  set 
apart  as  separate  funds.) 

Have  we  not  known  a  widow,  who  has  been  living  somewhat 
alone,  and  economically,  and  who  could  give  only  a  small  sum 
at  the  monthly  and  annual  collections,  but  has  comforted  herself 
and  thanked  the  Lord  that  she  could  look  forward  to  leaving  a 
part  or  all  of  her  little  property  by  will  to  the  dear  cause?  And 
have  we  carefully  planned  and  labored,  individually  and  collec- 
tively, that  children,  relatives,  and  others  be  influenced  towards 
that  kind  of  thank-offering,  after  having  carefully  included  in 
our  will  what  the  Lord,  in  repeated  holy  conferences  with  him 
concerning  it,  has  shown  to  be  his  wish  from  us?  |  K 

We  gratefully  rejoice  in  the  increase  of  Conditional  Gifts,  as 
stated  by  the  treasurer,  and  do  not  forget  that  from  them,  as  they 
gradually  mature  and  become  available,  we  shall  derive  substantial 
but  variable  sums;   but  this  will  be  indefinite  years  ahead,  when 


COMMITTEE    ON    TIIK    TREASURER'S    REPORT.  257 

growth  in  the  work  will  imperatively  require  increase  of  means 
far  beyond  any  amounts  thai  may  then  become  free  for  use  from 
that  source. 

And  the  urgency,  therefore,  remains  for  vigorous  and  patient 
cultivation  of  resources  from  legacies,  as  already  argued,  not 
abating  one  whit  from  our  most  consecrated  effort. 

There  may  be  an  honest,  undefined  fear  in  some  mind  lest  in 
this  sphere  of  hard  business  realities  we  weave  into  our  thought 
too  large  a  measure  of  idealism;  but  we  believe  our  Lord  will 
help  us  to  keep  sane  and  healthy,  while  we  seek  the  stimulus  of 
spiritual  perception  and  cultivate  its  constant  exercise. 

During  the  summer,  while  only  lightly  impressed  with  the 
beauty  of  many  large  groups  of  flowers,  one  day  we  paused  with  a 
microscope  over  one  or  two  single  flowers,  and  were  quickened  into 
reverent  wonder  and  praise  at  the  new  revelations  of  the  immea- 
surable wisdom  and  beauty  of  God's  workings;  and  yet  our  feeble 
glass  showed  only  a  part. 

So  with  our  limited  knowledge  in  mission  matters  as  a  small 
magnifying  glass,  we  pause  over  some  one  item  in  the  report  con- 
cerning a  mission  of  which  you  know  the  most  — one  in  which, 
it  may  be,  a  son  or  daughter  or  friend  is  a  worker;  and  you  have 
prayed  for  that  field  and  its  workers.  Thinking  humbly  of  your 
small  gift  included  in  the  sum  allotted  to  that  mission,  you  notice 
a  golden  vial  marking  the  prayers  for  that  field  —  and  it  gleams 
like  a  star;  and,  unperceived  before,  a  wonderful  array  of  such 
st  ars,  some  of  the  first  magnitude,  grouping  themselves  into  words, 
and  you  see  these  words  are  God's  promises.  And  these  starry 
vials,  full  of  odors,  presented  before  the  Lord,  are  indeed  the 
prayers  of  his  children,  but  also  their  consecrated  savings  —  the 
self-denying,  prayerfully  surrendered  and  prayerfully  followed 
gifts  which  he  treasures  and  never  fails  to  bless,  even  to  the  great 
consummations  of  eternity. 

What  an  immeasurable  treasury  of  ultimate  assets  for  the 
missions ! 

Of  course  in  the  constant  cry  for  brevity  the  treasurer  could  not 
give  even  a  glimpse  of  these. 

Looking  again  at  his  columns,  the  figures  are  not  so  much 
notations  of  money  values  as  forms  of  consecrated  personality; 
not  so  much  numerals  as  faces  —  luminous  faces  —  of  givers  and 
workers,  instinct  with  the  light  of  love  and  worship. 

One  figure  bears  the  face  of  one  who  has  just  entered  within  the 


258  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

vail,  and  represents  her  last  gift;  and  another  that  of  a  young 
Christian,  joyful  over  depositing  his  first  earnings.  And  hidden 
behind  the  treasurer's  list  of  expenditures  for  the  missions, 
lessening  them,  are  the  gifts  of  native  Christians, —  in  one  place  a 
penny,  the  commercial  value  of  a  little  dish  of  rice,  but  really  an 
alabaster  box  from  a  Hindoo  woman.  Time  would  fail  to  tell  the 
vision  that  bursts  forth  from  these  closely  packed  columns,  and 
the  luster  of  many  of  these  gifts  is  as  of  a  stream  of  jewels  pouring 
into  the  treasury,  covering  some  rusty  coins  among  them,  it  is 
true. 

But  what  a  multitude  of  glowing  faces,  and  what  glory  in  them! 
You  wish  you  knew  more  of  them,  but  do  recognize  some,  and 
among  them  some  missionaries,  giving  part  of  their  small  salaries 
as  well  as  their  whole  selves.  And  inseparably  mingling  in  this 
stream  of  giving,  praying,  and  labor,  busy  conferring  and  working 
over  questions  affecting  this  report,  are  the  familiar  faces  of  the 
treasurer  and  secretaries, —  ofttimes  tired,  but  cheerful  faces. 

Best  of  all  results  from  this  deeper  sense  of  the  unseen,  you  will 
by  this  time  reverently  and  in  silence  have  felt  constrained  to 
kneel  with  the  treasurer's  and  the  Missionary  Herald  monthly 
reports  in  your  hand  and  consecrate  yourself,  as  never  before, 
to  prayer  and  thanksgiving  for  the  givers,  who  are  the  foundation 
for  a  treasurer's  report,  and  for  their  increasing  prayerfulness  over 
their  increasing  gifts. 

And  if  we  continue  faithful  to  this  new  inspiration,  the  pleas 
of  our  home  secretary  for  more  soul-absorbing  prayer  and  gifts 
will  begin  to  be  realized,  and  the  million  dollars  be  continuously 
raised,  and  soul  harvests  over  the  whole  field,  for  which  all  the 
rest  is  the  indispensable  means,  will  be  gathered  in,  for  soul  pour- 
ing out  by  us  as  well  as  by  our  Lord  is  the  price  of  soul  harvesting. 

And  mark  you,  dear  brethren,  any  increase  of  our  gifts  and  of 
our  prayers  will  be  of  real,  living  power  only  in  proportion  as  we 
give  thanks  over  the  cases  of  conversion  of  individuals  and  of 
groups  through  the  great  field,  and  in  proportion  as  we  grow  in 
the  sense  of  the  exceeding  grace  and  patience  and  tenderness  of 
God's  working  in  these  cases,  which  in  reading  the  Missionary 
Herald  we  have  often  passed  over  too  lightly  as  small  items. 

Rays  of  light  reach  us  that  seem  to  be  from  a  tiny  star,  but  that 
diminutive  star  is  a  world  many  times  greater  than  our  sun.  The 
awakening  of  a  soul  in  Asia  or  Africa  is  to  us  like  the  shining  of  a 
little  star  —  but  oh,  the  immeasurable,  far-reaching  glory  of  it! 


COMMITTEE    OX    THE   TREASURER'S    REPORT.  259 

But  nothing  has  yet  been  suggested  of  the  reason  for  sympa- 
thetic appreciation  which  a  scrutiny  of  the  treasurer's  report 
reveals.  Realize  the  wisdom,  patience,  and  endurance  required 
in  the  multitudinous  duties  of  thai  office.  One  feature  out  of  a 
great  variety  will  illustrate. 

Friends  bequeath  pieces  of  real  estate  in  various  parts  of  the 
country  (and  we  earnestly  pray  for  more)  and  others  give  or  be- 
queath special  stocks  and  bonds,  these  various  properties  to  be 
held  until  they  yield  an  expected  improvement  in  value  which 
is  the  hope  of  the  yearning  givers. 

But  consider  the  inquiries  and  watching  this  involves,  some- 
times for  years,  to  determine  the  wise  time  to  realize  upon  each 
item  in  the  list.  And  on  another  line  of  the  treasurer's  thought 
and  that  of  his  earnest  counselors,  the  Finance  Committee,  the 
changing  values  of  investments  —  three  hundred  separate  items  of 
investment  to  be  watched.  Of  these  your  committee  now  report- 
ing has  examined  the  present  value,  and  is  pleased  to  report  the 
total  value  encouragingly  above  cost. 

Scrutinizing  that  item  in  the  report  to  which  business  attention 
is  always  directed,  the  cost  of  administration,  your  committee 
plainly  perceives  that  the  treasurer  and  his  assistants  have  borne 
their  share  along  with  the  missionaries  in  the  burden  of  insufficient 
funds.  And  we  admire  their  self-sacrificing  overwork  and  strain 
for  the  sake  of  economy,  all  quietly  hidden  from  general  view. 
But  we  must  not  be  blind  to  the  inseparable  and  inexorable  fact 
that  overwork  and  undue  strain  tend  to  breakdowns  in  health  and 
to  weakening  of  vital  efficiency,  and  have  so  resulted  in  man}' 
instances  in  the  field,  where  replacing  of  such  disabled  working 
force  is  wastefully  expensive,  as  the  treasurer's  reports  show. 
And  such  undue  pressure  is  grievously  unjust,  even  when  it  does 
not  reach  such  serious  result. 

Adjustment  of  sufficient  receipts  to  all  the  work,  alike  in  the 
broad  field  and  in  the  home  departments,  is  the  serious  problem 
before  this  gathering,  and  claims  the  consecrated  attention  of 
all  the  churches. 


260  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 


BUSINESS  MEETING  ON  THURSDAY  AFTERNOON. 

The  afternoon  session  on  Thursday  was  largely  devoted  to  busi- 
ness, which  may  be  found  recorded  in  full  in  the  December  issue 
of  the  Missionary  Herald,  pages  628  to  632. 

A  resolution  was  offered  by  Rev.  Washington  Gladden,  D.D., 
concerning  cooperation  with  the  United  Brethren  and  Methodist 
Protestants  as  follows: 

"  Under  the  good  Providence  of  God,  and,  as  we  trust,  by  the  guidance  of 
his  gracious  Spirit,  the  Christians  of  this  country,  bearing  the  names  of  United 
Brethren,  Methodist  Protestants,  and  Congregationalists,  have  been  drawing 
together  in  the  hope  of  a  closer  unity  and  with  the  desire  for  more  efficient 
cooperation  in  Christian  work. 

"  We  rejoice  in  all  that  this  movement  signifies  and  promises,  and  we  believe 
that  the  time  has  come  when,  without  waiting  for  the  adjustment  of  ques- 
tions of  polity  and  vested  interests,  it  may  be  possible  for  the  people  of  these 
three  denominations  to  unite  their  forces  in  the  work  of  foreign  missions. 

"  Be  it,  therefore,  resolved,  That  a  committee  of  seven  persons  be  appointed 
by  the  Board  at  this  meeting  to  consult  with  representatives  of  the  missionary 
interests  of  the  other  denominations,  with  a  view  to  the  speedy  consolidation 
of  the  foreign  missionary  work  of  the  three  Christian  bodies." 

This  was  then  referred  to  the  Business  Committee,  and  being 
reported  back  by  them  for  action  by  the  Board,  was  adopted. 
President  Capen  named  the  following  committee:  Rev.  W. 
Gladden,  Rev.  W.  H.  Ward,  Rev.  A.  E.  Dunning,  Rev.  J.  L. 
Barton,  President  Cyrus  Northrup,  President  J.  B.  Angell,  and 
Edward  H.  Pitkin. 

The  Business  Committee  reported  back  with  its  approval  the 
following  resolution : 

"  With  profound  gratitude  to  God  we  wish  to  acknowledge  the  results  of 
nearly  a  hundred  years  of  missionary  service  to  far-off  nations.  But,  great 
as  has  been  the  success,  we  recognize  that  it  has  been  far  below  both  our 
ability  and  our  opportunity.  The  work  has  been  carried  on  by  only  a  part 
of  our  church  membership;  the  sacrifices  of  the  few  ought  to  be  the  sacrifices 
of  all. 

"  (1)  We  believe,  first,  it  would  be  a  disgrace  to  our  churches  to  compel  the 
Prudential  Committee,  because  of  the  lack  of  funds,  to  give  up  or  curtail  any  of 
the  present  work  of  the  Board.  Work  may  be  transferred,  but  only  when  it 
can  be  more  economically  or  efficiently  carried  on  by  others. 

"  (2)  Second.  We  approve  of  such  larger  expenditure  in  cultivating  the  home 
field  and  in  work  for  young  people  as  in  the  judgment  of  the  Prudential 
Committee  may  be  desirable,  to  the  end  that  the  new  century,  both  at  home 
and  abroad,  may  begin  with  an  advance  and  not  a  retreat." 


BUSINESS   MEETING    ON    THURSDAY    A.FTERNOON.  261 

A  discussion  followed  upon  the  second  resolution,  and  upon  one 
offered  by  Rev.  Homer  T.  Fuller,  in  which  Rev.  Lyman  Abbott, 
D.  D.,  Secretary  C.  C.  Creegan,  Secretary  A.  N.  Hitchcock,  Col. 
C.  A.  Hopkins,  Secretary  H.  Melville  Tenney,  Mr.  Samuel  Usher, 
Mr.  Charles  A.  Hull,  Mr.  Edward  II.  Pitkin,  Dr.  William  H.  Ward, 
Dr.  Henry  Hopkins,  and  Rev.  Oliver  S.  Dean  participated.  It  was 
then  voted  that  a  committee  of  three  be  appointed  to  consider  the 
resolutions  offered,  and  report  upon  them  at  the  evening  session. 
President  Capen  named  the  following  committee:  Mr.  John  H. 
Perry,  Rev.  Homer  T.  Fuller,  and  Mr.  W.  W.  Mills.  They 
reported  at  the  evening  session  the  following  substitute  resolution 
which  was  adopted. 

"We  give  glory  to  God  for  the  results  of  missionary  service  during  the  past 
century,  and  are  profoundly  grateful  for  the  part  which  we  have  been  per- 
mitted to  bear  in  it,  but  sincerely  regret  that  this  has  been  so  far  below  both 
our  ability  and  the  opportunity.  We  hope  that  the  present  work  of  the  Board 
will  not  be  curtailed,  and  we  approve  of  such  larger  expenditure  in  cultivating 
the  home  field,  and  in  work  among  young  people  as,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
Prudential  Committee,  may  be  desirable,  to  the  end  that  the  new  century,  both 
at  home  and  abroad,  may  begin  with  an  advance  and  not  a  retreat. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Prudential  Committee  be  requested  to  take  into  consid- 
eration the  question  of  the  assignment  of  the  territory,  in  which  the  corporate 
members  reside,  among  them,  either  by  conferences  or  associations,  state  or 
local,  requesting  these  to  secure,  each  in  his  own  area,  the  utmost  possible 
interest  in  and  personal  subscriptions  to  the  work  of  the  Board,  it  being 
understood  that  this  duty  is  to  be  performed  hi  cooperation  with  the  regular 
agencies  employed  by  the  Board  for  this  purpose." 

The  Committee  on  Place  and  Preacher  reported  through  Rev. 
John  De  Peu,  recommending  that  the  next  meeting  of  the  Board 
be  held  with  Pilgrim  Church,  Cleveland,  with  the  understanding 
that  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  provide  for  full  time  for  the 
meeting  of  the  Board  to  secure  unity  and  continuity  in  its  meet- 
ings. The  recommendation  was  adopted.  The  committee  recom- 
mended that  Rev.  Charles  S.  Mills,  of  St.  Louis,  be  the  preacher, 
and  Rev.  Washington  Gladden  be  the  alternate,  and  it  was  so 
voted.  After  the  benediction  by  Rev.  Joseph  H.  Twichell,  adjourn- 
ment was  taken  to  7.30. 


262  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 


DISCUSSION  AS  TO  THE  FUTURE  POLICY  OF  THE 
BOARD  AT  HOME. 

Rev.  Lyman  Abbott,  D.D. 

Air.  President  and  Fellow-Christians:  I  heartily  second  and 
desire  earnestly  to  urge  the  adoption  of  the  second  resolution 
which  has  been  read  and  of  the  policy  which  it  indicates. 

We  are  living  in  an  age  and  a  country  in  which  everything  is 
thrown  into  the  melting-pot.  The  axioms  of  our  fathers  are  our 
problems.  Is  there  a  right  of  personal  property  or  ought  the 
state  to  own  all  the  property  and  direct  all  the  industries?  That 
is  a  question  that  is  seriously  and  earnestly  discussed  today.  Is 
the  relation  between  the  employer  and  the  employed  that  of  a 
modern  feudalism  in  which  the  employer  is  a  feudal  lord  and  the 
employed  are  his  serfs,  or  is  it  a  partnership  in  which  common 
interests  are  to  be  served  by  a  common  enterprise?  That  ques- 
tion is  seriously  and  earnestly  discussed  in  America  today.  Ought 
all  crimes  to  be  punished  by  judicial  procedure,  or  if  the  crime 
is  very  bad  ought  the  judicial  procedure  to  be  set  aside  and  for 
that  judicial  procedure  mob-law  substituted?  That  question  is 
really  and  seriously  discussed  by  public  men  today.  Now,  with 
such  questions  being  thus  discussed,  it  ought  not  to  surprise  us 
Christians  that  our  fundamental  faiths  are  also  submitted  to  a 
like  cross-examination. 

One  of  those  principles  is  this:  Is  Christianity  a  local,  provincial, 
and  temporary  religion,  or  is  it  a  world-wide  religion?  Has  it 
grown  up  among  a  certain  people,  the  natural  expression  of  their 
spiritual  aspirations  and  desires,  so  that  it  is  adapted  to  its  own 
soil  and  clime,  as  certain  vegetable  products  are  to  their  soil  and 
clime,  or  is  it  like  the  rain  that  comes  from  heaven,  and  the  sun- 
shine, for  the  whole  human  race?  Not  only  is  that  question 
discussed  openly  and  publicly,  but  that  question  is  itself  a  funda- 
mental one.  If  Christianity  is  a  provincial  religion,  it  is  a  tem- 
porary religion.  If  there  is  a  Brahmanism  which  is  fitted  for 
India,  and  a  Confucianism  which  is  fitted  for  China,  and  a  Roman- 
ism which  is  fitted  for  the  Latin  races,  and  a  Protestantism  which 
is  fitted  for  the  Germanic  races,  and  a  Puritanism  which  is  fitted 
for  the  greater  New  England,  they  are  all  provincial;  and,  however 
provincial  we  may  be  in  point  of  fact,  we  are  none  of  us  proud 


DISCI  SSION    \s  TO  FUTURE    POLICI   OF  HOARD  AT  HOME.      263 

of  our  provincialism.  We  all  expect  our  children  will  lay  aside 
the  provincialism  which  entangles  us.  So  that  the  question 
whether  the  Christian  religion  is  a  world-wide  religion  or  a  race 
religion  is  really  the  question  whether  it  is  any  true  wide  religion 
at  all.  If  it  is  not  worthy  to  give  up  to  others,  it  is  not  worthy 
to  keep  ourselves.  If  it  is  not  good  enough  to  export,  it  is  not 
good  enough  to  retain, —  although  I  believe  there  are  some 
American  manufacturers  that  do  export  goods  which  they  cannot 
sell  in  the  home  market. 

Three  Postu laths. 

There  are  three  postulates  which  I  assume  in  my  talk  this 
afternoon  are  to  be  taken  for  granted  in  this  gathering.  First,  t  hat 
the  end  of  all  human  progress  is  the  kingdom  of  God  on  the  earth. 
Without  defining  it,  it  at  least  includes  the  three  elements  which 
Paul  has  used  in  his  definition:  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy. 
The  end  of  all  human  progress  is  a  new  social  order  in  which,  first, 
men  will  be  governed  by  righteousness,  and  deal  with  one  another 
fairly,  honestly,  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  the  Golden 
Rule;  second,  the  spirit  of  peace  and  good-will  will  be  universally 
diffused,  and  there  will  be  cooperation  rather  than  competition, 
and  ambition  for  service  in  the  place  of  ambition  for  acquisition ; 
and  third,  there  will  be  universal  joy  and  happiness  —  the  diffusion 
of  those  things  that  make  for  happiness,  the  distribution  of  wealth 
with  its  material  comforts,  many  homes  and  few  palaces;  the  dis- 
tribution of  education,  with  schools  everywhere  in  place  of  a  few 
great  universities;  the  distribution  of  virtue  and  religion,  a  church 
in  every  hamlet  in  place  of  a  few  great  cathedrals.  Dr.  Pente- 
cost this  morning  said  he  would  not  venture  to  define  Christian 
civilization.  Well,  I  should  be  a  little  audacious  if  I  ventured 
to  do  what  he  would  not  venture  to  do,  but  I  will  at  least  venture 
to  say  this,  that  nothing  less  than  this  is  a  Christian  civilization  — 
nothing  less  than  a  civilization  which  is  pervaded  by  this  triple 
spirit  of  justice  and  fair  dealing,  harmony  and  good-will,  joy  and 
universal  welfare.     That  is  my  first  proposition. 

The  second  axiom  is  that  the  secret  of  all  progress  is  the  under- 
standing  of  God  and  conformity  to  God's  will,  and  cooperation 
with  God  in  God's  ways,  and  fellowship  with  God  in  his  Spirit. 
Society  is  not  made  up  by  a  universal  suffrage;  it  is  not  made  up 
by  the  mere  concretion  of  human  wills,  each  working  in  its  own 
way  and  counteracting  one  another.     It  never  will  be  made  up 


264  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

harmoniously,  peacefully,  and  happily,  until  the  members  of  that 
society  seek  to  know  what  is  the  will  of  God. 

Thirdly,  Jesus  Christ  is  the  son  of  God,  through  whom  the 
infinite  and  the  eternal  is  interpreted  to  the  sons  of  men,  and  he 
is  the  Son  of  Man,  through  whom  humanity  is  interpreted  to  itself 
—  not  a  son  of  the  Germanic  race,  not  a  son  of  New  England,  not 
a  son  of  the  Orient,  but  the  Son  of  Man.  Now,  I  say,  I  assume 
these  three  postulates  as  what  we  here  all  believe  in. 

Why  was  it  that  last  year,  speaking  broadly,  one  half  of  the 
Congregational  churches  did  not  contribute  to  the  American 
Board?  That  question  has  been  asked  on  this  platform.  Again 
I  will  endeavor  to  be  audacious  enough  to  give  it  an  answer. 
Some  of  them  would  not  contribute  because  individuals  in  the 
church  gave,  and  that  served  the  purpose;  some  of  them  because 
they  were  not  self-supporting  and  they  thought  mistakenly  that 
they  must  not  give  to  others  while  they  were  recipients  them- 
selves; some  of  them  because  they  were  on  the  edge  of  a  mission- 
ary field  and  were  themselves  ministering  to  local  heathen  and 
thought  that  sufficed.  But  when  all  such  allowance  is  made,  it 
remains  true  that  in  the  Congregational  churches  there  is  a  dis- 
belief or  an  unbelief  or  a  nebulous  belief  in  these  three  proposi- 
tions —  an  unbelief  or  a  half  belief  or  a  nebulous  belief  in  this 
fundamental  truth  that  the  Christian  religion  is  no  provincial 
religion,  but  a  world-wide  religion,  God  manifested  to  the  sons  of 
men  as  the  secret  of  all  human  prosperity,  the  secret  of  all  civili- 
zation, the  end  of  all  human  progress. 

Practical  Methods. 

It  is  the  commonplace  of  our  time  that  we  are  living  in  an  age 
of  skepticism.  How  shall  we  meet  it?  We  are  living  in  an  age 
of  spiritual  apathy.  How  shall  we  arouse  the  church?  We  are 
living  in  an  age  that  has  no  revivals.  How  shall  we  bring  back 
again  the  days  of  Whitefield?  There  are  two  ways.  We  may 
attempt  to  do  it  by  academic  discussion,  or  we  may  attempt  to  do 
it  by  a  call  to  practical  service.  We  ministers  may  go  into  our 
libraries,  in  the  first  place,  and  then  out  of  our  libraries  we  may 
come  and  preach  sermons  to  prove  the  divinity  of  Christ,  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  the  theory  of  the  Atonement,  the  plan  of 
salvation.  I  am  not  criticising  that  method.  A  certain  amount 
of  that  method  is  necessary  and  important.  But  it  is  not  the 
way  by  which  the  wave  of  skepticism  will  be  met.     That  is  not  the 


DISCISSION    AS   TO    FUTURE  POLICY   OF   BOARD  AT   HOME.      265 

American  way  of  meeting  intellectual  problems.  Americans, 
nationally,  temperamentally,  characteristically,  are  indifferent 
to  academic  questions  and  vitally  interested  in  practical  ones. 
The  question  of  bimetallism  was  discussed  by  scholars  for  half  a 
century,  and  most  Americans  did  not  know  there  was  such  a 
question.  When  Mr.  Bryan  said,  "  Let  us  adopt  free  silver  in  the 
United  States,"  every  man  in  the  country  went  to  studying 
bimetallism.  When  the  question  of  socialism  was  an  academic 
question  most  men  paid  little  attention  to  it.  The  other  day 
Mr.  Bryan,  on  the  platform  in  New  York,  said  that  the  govern- 
ment, state  and  federal,  ought  to  own  and  operate  all  the  rail- 
roads, and  do  you  know  that  in  less  than  two  weeks'  time  I  had 
certainly  six  and  I  think  a  dozen  letters  written  to  me  asking  me 
to  recommend  books  for  the  study  of  socialism,  and  some  of  them 
were  from  ministers.  So  long  as  bimetallism  and  socialism  were 
academic  questions,  Americans  listened  to  their  discussion  with 
languid  interest  or  not  at  all,  but  when  the  question  was  brought 
as  a  practical  one  to  the  American  people,  they  took  hold  of  it. 

When  the  minister  goes  into  his  pulpit  to  prove  by  philos- 
ophy borrowed  from  Hegel,  or  by  texts  borrowed  from  John,  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  divine,  a  waning  congregation  listens  with  lessened 
interest.  When  Dr.  Grenfell  comes  from  Labrador  to  materialistic 
New  York  to  tell  what  the  divine  Christ  has  been  doing  for  the 
healing  of  the  sick,  for  the  redeeming  of  men  from  poverty  and 
wretchedness  and  disease  and  death,  not  only  do  men  flock  to  the 
churches  to  hear  him,  but  he  gets  more  invitations  from  secular 
clubs  than  he  can  accept.  The  academic  way  is  not  the  American 
way,  and  it  is  not  the  divine  way.  The  apostles  did  not  sit  down 
in  Jerusalem,  form  an  assembly,  and  thrash  out  among  themselves 
the  Apostles'  Creed.  They  went  out  into  the  pagan  lands  to  carry 
this  message  that  the  Redeemer  had  come,  the  Deliverer,  the 
Ransomer,  the  man  who  was  bringing  liberty  for  slavery,  justice 
for  injustice,  wealth  for  poverty,  education  for  ignorance,  the 
kingdom  of  God  on  the  earth.  These  apostles  looked  out  and 
they  saw7  a  world  groaning  and  travailing  together  in  pain,  and 
they  felt  the  throb  of  that  human  pain  in  their  hearts.  They 
were  intensely  humanitarian  and  they  felt  intensely  this  sorrow 
of  the  pagan  world.  They  believed  they  had  in  their  hands  and 
in  their  hearts  the  remedy.  They  believed  they  had  that  which 
would  set  the  world  free  from  its  oppression,  from  its  wrongs,  from 
its  cruelty,  and  they  went  out  with  that  message,  and  it  took  four 


266  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

centuries  of  missionary  work  before  the  Apostles'  Creed  was 
evolved.  The  creed  grew  out  of  the  missionary  work,  not  the 
missionary  work  out  of  the  Apostles'  Creed. 

Do  you  remember  how  and  where  the  remedy  for  yellow  fever 
was  discovered?  Not  in  the  quiet  laboratories  of  Yale  and  Har- 
vard and  Cornell.  Down  in  Cuba,  on  the  tented  field,  with  the 
sound  of  battle  and  with  all  the  dreaded  waves  of  yellow  fever 
sweeping  around,  there  Dr.  Reed  discovered  what  was  the  secret 
of  yellow  fever  and  how  to  prevent  it.  Not  in  our  theological 
libraries,  but  out  in  the  tented  field,  out  where  we  have  to  meet 
the  woe  and  the  pain  of  the  world,  there  we  shall  learn  the  prac- 
tical remedy,  there  we  shall  find  the  cure  for  the  skepticism  of  the 
world  and  the  apathy  of  the  church. 

I  want,  —  I  am  always  wanting  the  impossible  or  the  impracti- 
cable, —  I  want  the  American  Board  to  do  a  great  deal  more  than 
this  resolution  calls  upon  them  to  do.  I  am  not  quite  sure 
whether  they  ought  to,  but  I  know  what  I  want.  I  want  to  see 
this  Prudential  Committee  organize  a  crusade  in  the  United 
States  of  America,  not  for  the  purpose  of  raising  money,  but  for 
the  purpose  of  raising  Christian  standards;  not  for  the  purpose  of 
promoting  sound  doctrine,  but  for  the  purpose  of  calling  to  sound 
duty;  not  for  the  purpose  of  producing  emotional  revivals  of 
religion,  but  of  promoting  a  revival  of  the  spirit  of  service,  in  the 
faith  that  such  a  crusade  is  the  very  best  way  to  raise  money, 
to  bring  about  sound  doctrine,  and  to  create  revivals  of  religion. 

A  Humanitarian  Age. 

This,  we  are  constantly  told,  is  a  humanitarian  age.  It  is. 
The  American  people  are  interested  as  they  never  were  before  in 
their  fellow-men.  A  good  many  of  them  have  thrown  over  the 
old  definition  of  God,  and  they  have  not  got  a  new  one.  A  good 
many  of  them  have  lost  the  celestial  vision  of  their  childhood  and 
have  not  got  a  new  one.  I  am  sorry  they  have  not  that  conception 
of  God  which  Dr.  Hyde  gave  us  the  other  morning.  I  am  sorry 
they  have  not  the  vision  of  the  kingdom  of  God  which  is  the  spur 
and  incentive  to  spiritual  industry.  But  at  least  they  have  this,  — 
an  interest  in,  their  fellow-men.  The  American  press  has  spent 
thousands  of  dollars  to  bring  to  us  from  across  the  seas  the  news 
of  what  is  going  on  in  Russia.  Men  go  there  at  the  hazard  of  their 
lives  because  the  American  people  are  interested  in  the  cause  of 
liberty  and  justice  in  Russia.     When  I  was  a  boy,  almost  the  whole 


DISCUSSION  AS  TO  FUTURE  POLICY  OF  BOARD  AT  HOME.      267 

northern  nation  and  almost  the  whole  northern  church  was 
apathetic  in  the  presence  of  slavery.  Today,  though  the  slaves 
are  emancipated,  the  North  is  turning  out  thousands  of  men  and 
millions  of  dollars  to  educate  and  elevate  the  half-emancipated 
slaves.  We  went  to  war  with  Spain  over  Cuba,  partly,  no  doubt, 
in  a  spirit  of  revenge,  and  partly,  also,  inspired  by  the  high 
resolve  that  the  cruelties  which  had  been  perpetrated  on  our 
fellow-citizens  across  that  narrow  band  of  water  should  be  per- 
petrated no  longer.  The  American  people  are  interested  in  their 
fellow-men,  and  though  I  may  be  misunderstood,  —  I  have  been, 
sometimes,  —  we  Christian  men  who  believe  in  God  and  in 
immortality  and  in  a  crucified  and  risen  Saviour,  are  to  take  the 
age  as  we  find  it  in  order  that  we  may  not  leave  the  age  as  we  find 
it.  It  is  a  humanitarian  age.  Yes,  and  Christianity  is  a  very 
humanitarian  religion.  Hear  Christ's  definition  of  his  function: 
"  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed  me 
to  preach  glad  tidings  to  the  poor;  he  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the 
brokenhearted,  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recover- 
ing of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to 
preach  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord."  Here  is  his  definition 
of  his  mission:  "  As  my  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you. 
And  when  he  had  said  this,  he  breathed  on  them,  and  saith  unto 
them,  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost.''  This  Christian  Church  of 
ours  ought  to  go  to  a  people  that  are  already  interested  to  see  the 
horrible  cruelties  in  the  Congo  stopped;  to  see  the  death-in-life 
in  China  awakened;  to  see  the  barbarisms  in  Russia,  the  harrow- 
ing and  plowing  of  men  and  women  under  the  heel  of  despotism, 
brought  to  an  end.  We  ought  to  go  to  our  fellow-citizens  and 
say  to  them,  in  the  spirit  in  which  Paul  went,  in  his  own  time: 
"  We  have  in  our  hands  and  we  have  in  our  hearts  that  which  will 
give  righteousness  —  that  is  justice  and  fair  dealing  and  honest 
government;  and  that  which  will  give  peace,  accord,  harmony, 
and  good-will,  and  that  which  will  give  joy  and  universal  welfare." 
We  gather  in  our  prayer  meetings  and  pray  that  Christ  will  come 
to  us,  and  he  says,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  to  all 
nations,  and  lo,  I  am  with  you."  We  pray  that  he  will  give  us 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  he  says,  "  As  the  Father  hath 
sent  me  into  the  world,  even  so  send  I  you.  Go  ye,  and  ye  shall 
receive  the  Holy  Ghost."  He  will  not  leave  his  ministry  to  come 
and  sit  by  our  side  while  we  carry  on  our  fishing.  He  will  be 
our  companion  when  we  leave  our  nets  and  follow  him. 


268  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 


Discussion, —  Rev.  C.  C.  Creegan,  D.D. 

I  have  been  asked  to  say  a  word  on  these  resolutions  which  are 
before  you.     The  second  resolution  reads: 

"  We  approve  of  such  larger  expenditure  in  cultivating  the  home  field  and 
in  work  for  young  people  as  in  the  judgment  of  the  Prudential  Committee  may 
be  desirable,  to  the  end  that  the  new  century,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  may 
begin  with  an  advance  and  not  with  a  retreat." 

Touching  the  work  among  young  people,  it  has  become  perfectly 
clear  to  me  during  the  last  year,  more  so  than  ever  before,  that  if 
we  are  to  have  a  giving  constituency,  say,  ten  or  fifteen  or  twenty 
years  from  now;  if  legacies  are  to  be  written  by  and  by;  if  we  are 
to  have  a  full  treasury;  if  we  are  to  have  missionaries  who  will 
respond  to  the  call  and  go  to  the  front,  —  work  among  the  children 
in  the  Sunday-schools  and  in  the  societies  of  Christian  Endeavor 
and  other  organizations  of  young  people  must  be  pressed  as  never 
before.  If  you  do  not  all  know  it,  brethren,  some  of  us  do,  —  you 
among  the  rest,  Mr.  Chairman,  — that  we  are  very  fortunate  in 
having,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  a  man  who  seems  to  have  had 
just  exactly  the  right  training  for  leadership  in  this  work  among 
the  young  people.  He  is  at  the  head  of  that  department  in  our 
executive  force,  his  name  is  familiar  to  many  of  you,  and  will  soon 
become  familiar  to  all  our  churches,  I  hope,  up  and  down  the  land. 

Now,  if  there  is  any  one  thing  that  can  be  done  during  the  com- 
ing year,  one  thing  that  is  to  have  precedence  above  everything 
else,  in  my  judgment,  it  should  be  work  in  our  Sunday-schools  and 
in  cultivating  young  people  along  missionary  lines,  establishing 
training  classes  that  will  train  our  teachers  in  the  Sunday-schools, 
so  that  they  may  train  the  children  under  them,  and  also  work 
among  the  young  people  in  the  Christian  Endeavor  societies.  If 
this  work  is  to  be  successful,  our  superintendents  in  the  Sunday- 
schools  must  be  quickened.  It  would  surprise  some  of  you  who 
are  not  familiar  with  the  exact  facts  to  know  how  small  a  per  cent 
of  our  Sunday-school  superintendents  seem  to  have  these  mis- 
sionary problems  on  their  hearts.  There  are  some  of  them,  of 
course,  who  are  devoted  to  the  cause,  and  I  think  the  number  is  a 
growing  one,  but  it  is  not  so  large  as  it  should  be,  and  work  along 
that  line  must  be  done. 

Now,  if  this  work  is  done,  and  done  successfully,  of  course  there 


DISCUSSION   AS  TO  FUTURE  POLICY  OF  BOARD  AT  HOME.      269 

must  be  an  increase  of  expenditure.  It  takes  money  for  postage, 
for  writing  letters,  for  traveling  expenses,  for  various  publica- 
tions, and,  of  course,  the  money  will  be  provided  by  the  Pru- 
dential Committee,  and  the  corporate  membership  of  the  Board 
will  stand  back  of  the  Prudential  Committee  because  they  trust 
them.  I  will  not  discuss  that  point  any  further.  I  think  we  are 
all  of  one  mind  on  that . 

One  other  point.  If  we  are  to  cultivate  the  entire  field  and  lift 
along  the  whole  line,  the  question  arises,  Shall  we  have  a  larger 
staff  of  field  workers?  I  want  to  speak  to  that  question  for  a  few 
moments. 

It  is  absolutely  impossible,  of  course,  with  the  present  staff  that 
we  have  in  the  field,  our  home  secretary  and  three  field  secretaries 
covering  the  whole  land,  to  do  it  as  thoroughly  as  it  should  be 
done.  The  ideal,  of  course,  would  be  to  have  all  of  our  pastors 
thoroughly  awakened  on  the  subject  of  foreign  missions,  and 
thoroughly  posted  in  regard  to  them,  and  if  that  were  the  case 
you  could  dismiss  all  of  your  field  workers  at  this  meeting  and 
close  up  that  business  so  that  it  would  not  be  a  charge  against  the 
Board  for  the  future.  For,  Mr.  Chairman,  you  know  —  you  have 
spoken  and  written  upon  that  subject  several  times  —  that  there 
are  some  pastors  in  this  country  who  do  not  take  up  a  collection 
for  the  American  Board,  and  those  figures  that  Dr.  Abbott  brought 
out  in  his  address  indicate  that  it  is  a  very  large  number,  so  large 
that  I  do  not  care  to  repeat  his  figures  here.  It  is  mortifying  for 
a  Congregationalist  to  feel  that  there  are  so  many  pastors  that 
do  not  take  up  any  collection  for  foreign  missions.  Now,  there  is 
not  a  pastor  here  that  belongs  to  that  list.  How  do  I  know? 
Because  a  man  is  not  going  to  come  up  to  a  meeting  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board  and  pay  his  traveling  expenses  —  and,  if  he  does  not 
have  the  great  privilege  of  being  a  corporate  member,  pay  his 
hotel  expenses  —  unless  he  has  an  interest  in  this  work.  If  he  is 
interested,  he  is  going  to  have  a  collection  from  his  church,  and 
if  there  isn't  anybody  else  to  join  him  his  wife  will  join  him  and 
they  two  will  make  up  the  collection  and  that  church  will  be 
represented. 

Now,  the  problem  arises,  How  are  we  going  to  get  those  several 
hundred  pastors  interested?  I  think  one  of  the  best  ways  —  if 
you  will  allow  me  to  speak  right  out  from  my  heart  —  to  get  them 
interested  would  be  to  bring  them  under  the  influence  of  just  such 
a  meeting  as  we  had  yesterday  afternoon  or  yesterday  morning 


270  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

in  the  college  chapel.  If  there  has  ever  been  a  better  meeting  in 
the  history  of  the  American  Board,  Mr.  President,  you  and  I  do 
not  remember  it.  There  certainly  has  not  been  the  equal  of  it 
within  twenty-five  years.  If  those  pastors  that  we  are  talking 
about,  who  did  not  give  and  did  not  ask  their  churches  to  give 
anything  to  this  work,  had  been  present  yesterday,  we  would  find 
next  year  that  their  churches  would  respond  because  the  pastors 
would  urge  the  cause  upon  them.  If  they  had  been  there,  or  if 
next  year  we  could  get  them  at  the  meeting  in  Cleveland,  and 
under  the  influence  of  just  such  an  atmosphere,  I  think  this,  ques- 
tion would  be  largely  solved.  But  how  are  we  going  to  do  it? 
Well,  Mr.  Chairman,  you  and  I  have  voted  for  some  years  back 
that  the  only  people  who  are  going  to  receive  free  entertainment 
at  the  meetings  of  the  American  Board  are  those  very  ones  —  to 
be  perfectly  frank  —  who  are  best  prepared  to  pay  their  own  bills. 
So  that  the  men  who  are  over  these  small  churches,  and  who  are 
having  the  fight  of  their  lives  over  the  bread-and-butter  question, 
if  they  can  find  money  enough  to  come  to  a  meeting  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board,  are  the  men  of  all  others  under  the  blue  heavens  who 
should  receive  entertainment,  next  to  our  missionaries  who  are  on 
the  firing-line  in  China  and  Africa,  for  it  is  these  home  mission- 
aries, for  the  most  part,  who  are  the  pastors  of  these  churches  that 
do  not  respond. 

Now,  I  am  talking  with  a  great  deal  of  freedom  because  I  am 
going  to  sail  in  a  few  days,  and  no  matter  what  you  say  about 
me,  I  shall  be  out  of  the  country  and  shall  not  hear  of  it !  But  I 
want  to  tell  you  that  that  is  a  mistake  which  we  made  some  years 
ago  in  deciding  that  the  well-to-do  men  in  our  churches  —  that  is 
to  say,  the  men  who  are  best  able  to  pay  their  own  bills  —  are 
the  only  ones  (the  missionaries  alone  excepted)  who  are  to  be  en- 
tertained here,  and  have  been  entertained  at  these  meetings  since 
we  changed  that  rule  some  ten  years  ago;  and  then  we  stand  up 
here  and  declaim  against  these  pastors  on  the  hillsides,  these 
men  who  would  make  real  sacrifices  to  pay  their  railroad  fare  and 
come  to  these  meetings! 

Now,  another  thing  about  this  increase  of  staff.  In  the  old 
days,  before  you  were  born,  Mr.  Chairman,  when  they  were  run- 
ning this  American  Board  in  the  days  of  our  grandfathers,  they 
had  no  field  secretaries;  the  secretaries  stayed  in  Boston  and 
attended  to  the  correspondence  and  did  not  go  out  among  the 
churches.     But  they  got  along  pretty  well  because  there  were 


DISCUSSION    AS   TO    FUTURE    POLICY   OF  BOARD  AT  HOME.      2/1 

consecrated  laymen  and  women  here  and  there  among  the  churches 
who  took  the  thing  upon  their  hearts,  and  they  did  the  soliciting. 
When  I  go  to  certain  towns  now,  in  Connecticut,  some  old  gentle- 
man will  take  out  a  very  old  hook  running  back  to  the  early  days 
of  the  American  Board,  and  show  me  a  list  of  names,  and  tell  me 
thai  his  father  —  or  in  some  cases  his  grandfather  —  solicited 
through  Litchfield  County,  or  through  some  other  county,  and  got 
these  contributions  for  the  American  Board.  Then,  by  and  by, 
for  some  reasons  that  I  do  not  well  understand,  the  American 
Board  became  a  little  embarrassed  along  about  1835,  and  they 
could  not  send  out  any  missionaries  at  that  time.  The  officers 
brought  up  the  question,  on  the  recommendation  of  the  Prudential 
Committee,  whether  they  should  hold  back  these  young  men  who 
wanted  to  go  as  missionaries  with  their  young  wives.  They 
brought  it  before  the  Board  and  the  Board  said,  "  No;  but  you 
secretaries  go  out  among  the  churches  and  secure  some  additional 
help  —  field  agents,  or  whatever  you  call  them  —  and  send  them 
out  among  the  churches  and  get  the  money  to  send  out  these 
young  men  who  have  received  this  training  in  the  colleges  and  in 
the  seminaries,  and  who  for  years  have  had  the  missionary  fire 
burning  in  their  hearts.  Don't  keep  them  in  the  home  land. 
Send  them  out,  and  go  out  and  get  the  money."  So  they  appointed 
several  field  secretaries,  and  kept  on  increasing  the  number  until 
they  had  thirteen  or  fourteen  men  up  and  down  the  land  doing 
this  work.  Some  states  they  cut  in  two,  and  had  two  men  in  a 
single  state.  The  Presbyterians  wrere  with  the  American  Board 
in  those  days;  also  the  Dutch  Reformed  and  German  Reformed 
churches,  and  that  helped,  of  course,  to  call  for  this  extra  assist- 
ance. Now,  I  don't  know  how  it  came  about,  but  by  and  by  there 
came  a  reaction  of  feeling.  A  great  many  of  the  pastors  said: 
"  We  have  got  too  many  of  these  field  agents."  So  the  Board 
began  to  cut  down  the  number,  and  kept  on  cutting  down  until  the 
Presbyterians  withdrew  and  had  their  own  board  —  the  Dutch 
Reformed  churches  had  withdrawn  a  little  before  —  and  left  the 
work  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  the  Congregationalists,  and  it  came 
to  pass  that  there  were  only  two  field  secretaries,  one  located  at 
New  York  and  the  other  located  at  Chicago.  It  was  several  years 
before  a  field  agent  was  appointed  for  the  Pacific  coast. 

Now,  there  must  have  been  a  reason  for  that  change.  There 
was  a  feeling  among  the  churches  that  there  was  too  large  a  staff 
of  field  secretaries,  or  district  secretaries,  or  whatever  name  they 


272  THE    HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

bore.  Now  there  has  come  a  reaction  of  feeling  in  the  other 
direction.  It  is  perfectly  plain  that  two  or  three  men  cannot 
cover  the  whole  of  the'United  States  and  do  this  work  as  thor- 
oughly as  it  ought  to  be  done. 

Now  as  to  the  solution,  what  are  we  going  to  do  about  it? 
Dr.  Gladden,  moderator  of  our  National  Council,  a  few  moments 
ago,  catching  the  atmosphere  of  that  hour  this  morning  when 
Bishop  Bell  and  our  friend  representing  the  Methodist  Protestants 
poured  those  eloquent  addresses  upon  this  audience,  —  and  so  fired 
were  they  with  the  missionary  spirit  that  any  man  sitting  upon 
this  platform  could  see  the  soul-light  appear  in  your  faces,  and  if 
a  vote  had  been  taken  then  you  would  have  unanimously  voted, 
"  Let  us  as  quickly  as  possible  combine  with  these  brethren  of  the 
Methodist  Protestant  and  United  Brethren  churches,"  —  Dr. 
Gladden  introduced  that  resolution  which  you  have  heard  read. 
You  voted  unanimously,  "  We  will  aim  for  it."  Now,  suppose  in 
the  meantime  we  just  hold  this  thing  in  abeyance;  suppose  we 
pray  over  it;  suppose  we  press  that  committee  to  immediate 
action;  suppose,  a  year  from  now,  if  it  please  God,  we  arrange  the 
thing  so  that  instead  of  one  regiment  we  shall  have  three  march- 
ing under  the  banner  of  the  American  Board.  Let  us  wait  a 
bit,  then.  And  then,  by  and  by,  suppose  we  divide  up  the  field, 
and  how  will  it  turn  out?  Why,  take  Ohio.  If  the  United 
Brethren  come  in  with  us,  they  give  us  at  once  a  constituency  of 
eight  hundred  churches  in  that  state.  If  our  Methodist  Protestant 
brethren  come  in  also,  they  give  us  two  hundred  churches  in  that 
state.  There  are  one  thousand  churches  added  to  our  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty,  or  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  churches  aiming  for 
the  same  thing,  working  under  the  same  Board,  in  one  state. 
Can't  you  see,  then,  how  we  can  divide  up  the  field?  Give  us,  then, 
seven  field  workers,  if  you  please.  Let  the  United  Brethren  have 
a  fair  representation,  the  Methodist  Protestants  a  fair  representa- 
tion, and  the  Congregationalists  a  fair  representation.  Let  all 
our  churches  work  together.  Let  the  eloquent  men,  if  you  please, 
who  spoke  to  us  this  morning  representing  those  denominations  be 
made  representatives  of  the  American  Board,  going  out  not  only 
among  their  own  people  to  fire  them  with  missionary  zeal,  but 
among  our  Congregational  churches  as  well.  Working  together 
as  a  unit  we  will  bring  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  not  only  in  the 
United  States  but  in  the  lands  beyond  the  seas. 


DISCUSSION  AS  TO  FUTURE  POLICY  OF  BOARD  AT  HOME.      273 


Discussion, —  Rev.  A.  N.  Hitchcock,  Ph.D.,  Chicago,  III., 
District  Secretary  for  the  Interior. 

Mr.  President,  Fathers,  and  Brethren:  It  is  natural  for  men  to 
indulge  in  the  illusions  of  hope,  and  there  are  some  things  to  be 
said  in  behalf  at  least  of  some  of  these  non-contributing  churches. 
It  would  not  be  proper,  it  would  not  be  good  policy,  for  any 
secretary  or  representative  of  the  Board,  in  visiting  one  of  those 
little  non-contributing  churches,  to  speak  apologetically  either 
for  their  ignorance  or  their  want  of  practical  cooperation;  but 
when  we  are  here  by  ourselves,  taking  notes  of  our  resources,  we 
need  to  have  as  clear  a  perspective  as  possible.  I  take  it  that  a 
statement  of  that  kind  will  pass  unchallenged. 

Now,  when  the  statement  is  made,  if  it  be  made,  that  of  six 
thousand  Congregational  churches,  three  thousand  are  non- 
contributing, —  thereby  encouraging  the  inference  that  those 
three  thousand  non-contributing  churches  are  coordinate  with  the 
three  thousand  contributing  churches,  of  equal  rank  and  responsi- 
bility,—  we  may  do  some  injustice  to  those  churches,  and  we  may 
supply  for  ourselves  uncertain  and  untrustworthy  grounds  of 
action.  We  may  be  beguiled  into  the  expenditure  of  effort  in 
directions  and  in  areas  that  will  not  yield  the  largest  returns. 
I  have  a  more  intimate  knowledge  concerning  the  churches,  con- 
tributing and  non-contributing,  in  the  interior  district.  You  will 
see  from  the  report  of  the  Home  Department  — •  that  portion  of 
it  which  it  was  my  part  particularly  to  prepare  —  that  there  are 
about  twenty-eight  hundred  Congregational  churches  in  the 
interior  states.  Of  those,  rather  more  than  one  thousand  last  year 
contributed  nothing  at  all  to  the  American  Board.  Now,  shall  we 
line  up  those  one  thousand  non-contributing  churches  and  place 
them,  for  purposes  of  comparison  and  estimated  responsibility, 
over  against  those  that  contributed  and  say,  "  You  are  under 
equal  obligation  in  all  respects  "?  There  is  very  much  to  support 
a  contention  of  that  sort,  and  yet  it  seems  to  me  that  there  are 
certain  considerations  of  expediency,  not  to  say  of  charity  and 
fairness,  that  would  find  place  just  at  that  point. 

For  example,  brethren,  there  are  thirteen  hundred  churches  in 
the  interior  district  whose  average  membership  would  not,  I 
think,  exceed  thirty-five.     There  are  six  hundred  Congregational 


274  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

churches  in  the  interior  district  whose  average  membership  would 
not  exceed,  I  think,  twenty.  I  heard  of  one  church  out  in  Illinois 
which  had  only  one  member,  and  he  was  the  clerk.  Possibly  he 
refused  to  count  any  others  but  himself.  We  must  make  allow- 
ance, of  course,  for  such  personal  equations  as  those,  and  yet  the 
general  statement  which  I  have  made  is  an  altogether  truthful 
one.  When  I  have  occasion,  as  I  have  every  year,  to  send  out  a 
communication  that  shall  reach  all  the  pastors  between  the  western 
boundary  of  Ohio  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  it  does  not  take 
twenty-eight  hundred  letters  to  reach  them.  About  two  thousand 
will  suffice.  Why?  I  think  some  of  you  can  answer  that  question 
now,  in  your  own  thought,  without  pausing  for  further  considera- 
tion. It  means  that  many  of  the  churches  have  no  working 
existence.  They  do  not  contribute  for  anything.  They  have 
simply  a  name  to  live.  Some  of  them  ought  to  be  stricken  off 
the  "  Year-Book."  Some  of  them  have  less  than  ten  members  — 
less  than  six  or  eight.  Sometimes  they  are  grouped  together  and 
ministered  to  by  one  man.  About  three  hundred  of  them  in  my 
district  are  in  the  south  Mississippi  states,  mostly  colored  and  few 
contributing. 

Now,  that  which  I  have  said,  brethren,  is  not  to  sustain  the 
inference  for  a  moment  that  we  are  not  to  cultivate  these  small 
churches.  The  grace  of  giving  should,  by  every  possible  and 
practicable  means,  be  cultivated  and  ingrafted  upon  the  life  of 
those  young  organizations  or  small  organizations,  even  though  the 
majority  of  them  are  destined,  I  suppose,  in  the  Providence  of 
God,  to  remain  small.  We  must  cultivate  them;  in  some  way  we 
must  get  into  touch  with  them  and  bring  out  the  latent  resources 
that  are  there.  For  there  are  some  resources  in  them  and  we 
cannot  measure  them  beforehand;-  they  may  prove  to  be  larger 
than  any  predetermined  estimate  that  any  of  us  — ■  even  the  most 
sanguine  —  would  be  disposed  to  make.  But  practical  experience 
for  a  number  of  years  has  convinced  me  that  when  we  come  to 
talk  about  income,  by  far  the  most  promising  source  of  income  is 
the  non-contributing  element  in  our  contributing  churches;  and 
while  we  should  not  withhold  from  these  smaller  organizations 
every  possible  influence  that  may  reach  them  sympathetically  and 
bring  them  into  this  blessed  cooperation  for  mankind  and  for  the 
Saviour  of  mankind,  I  tell  you,  brethren,  honestly  —  and  this 
grows  upon  me  rather  than  retreats  from  the  category  of  my 
convictions  —  that  we  need  to  bestir  ourselves  with  redoubled 


DISCUSSION  AS  TO  FUTURE  POLICY  OF  BOARD  AT  HOME.   275 

diligence  in  behalf  of  the  constituency  in  the  larger  churches, 
nominally  contributing,  that  are  getting  away  from  us. 

Now,  how  are  we  going  to  do  that?  How  are  we  going  to  reach 
both  classes?  I  am  in  hearty  sympathy  with  these  resolutions 
of  the  president,  and  I  believe  that  something  will  come  of  them, 
and  that  the  wisdom  of  the  Prudential  Committee  applied  to  this 
practical  question  will  supply  an  important  aid.  I  have  long  been 
of  the  opinion  that  we  must  adopt  agencies  that  do  not  depend 
upon  a  favorable  Sunday  or  a  favorable  Wednesday  night  for  the 
best  execution.  I  think  we  ought  in  some  way  to  bring  into  prac- 
tical operation  a  series  of  agencies  for  which  one  night  in  the  week 
is  about  as  good  as  any  other  night.  I  got  some  light  on  that  in 
respect  to  our  last  campaign.  I  hope  it  is  not  the  last  large, 
general,  enthusiastic  campaign,  under  the  splendid  leadership  of 
our  home  secretary,  that  we  shall  see.  For  myself  I  have  not  yet 
been  able  to  construct  a  satisfactory  reason  why  we  should  not 
even  have  another  in  this  coming  year  very  much  like  it.  But 
as  I  went  about  from  city  to  city  among  all  the  leading  Congre- 
gational centers  in  the  interior  states  to  "  set  up  "  — to  use  a 
common  phrase  —  this  campaign,  to  get  their  assent,  their  consent, 
their  promise  of  cooperation,  and  a  preliminary  organization,  some 
light  dawned  upon  me  that  I  had  not  fully  seen  before.  When,  as 
in  Dubuque,  in  Topeka,  in  Kansas  City,  and  in  many  other  places 
of  like  size  and  quality,  I  had  the  privilege  of  sitting  down  at  a 
table,  which  they  themselves  had  bountifully  and  hospitably 
spread,  with  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  of  the  best  men  of  those 
cities,  —  I  will  not  say  Congregationalists;  they  were  that,  but 
they  were  also  the  best  men  of  those  cities,  —  and  talking  face  to 
face  and  heart  to  heart  with  them  upon  this  great  practical  ques- 
tion, expressive  and  creative  of  the  best  life  of  our  Congregational 
Christianity,  I  tell  you  my  breath  was  fairly  taken  away  again 
and  again  by  the  almost  instant  and  hearty  assent  which  every 
man  of  them  gave  to  the  plan,  and  I  said  to  myself,  "  More  of 
this  sort  of  thing  ought  to  be  going  on."  What  hinders  a  good 
secretary  or  a  good  agent,  fitted  for  such  work  as  this,  from  taking 
to  himself  an  area  like,  let  us  say,  Rockford  Association  or  Elgin 
Association,  and  meeting  on  Monday  night  all  the  working  forces 
of  a  given  church,  including  the  pastor  of  that  church,  for  a  similar 
conference,  and  then  on  Tuesday  night  another,  and  on  Wednesday 
night  another,  and  on  Thursday  night  another,  and  on  Friday 
night  another,  and  then  on  Sunday,  of  course,  he  will  be  fresh, 


276  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

with  some  fresh  material,  to  make  a  strong  and  effective  presen- 
tation of  the  cause.  Meantime  he  has  been  doing  his  most  effective 
work  in  this  personal  sort  of  appeal,  in  organizing  under  a  clear 
light  the  forces  and  the  activities  which  should  yield  the  largest 
results. 

Now,  then,  by  such  a  multiplication,  two  or  three  men  do  not 
need  to  be  estimated  as  to  the  value  of  their  services  by  the  num- 
ber of  Sundays  there  are  in  the  year  for  each  one  of  them,  but 
almost,  you  might  say,  by  the  number  of  week  nights.  Then  how 
the  ignorance  will  be  scattered,  and  how  the  light  will  shine!  For 
there  is  a  whole  lot  of  ignorance  still.  I  got  a  letter  the  other  day 
addressed,  "  American  Board  of  Home  and  Foreign  Missions." 
And  that  wasn't  all.  It  proceeded  to  say,  "  Dear  Ladies,"  — 
which  suggested  to  me,  what  is  in  some  respects  partly  true,  that 
the  ladies  have  been  in  evidence  very  much,  and  we  may  sit  at 
their  feet  and  learn  some  things  as  to  methods.  They  have  been 
doing  just  about  this  thing  of  which  I  have  been  speaking  very 
successfully  for  quite  a  while.  I  got  another  letter  addressed, 
"  American  Board  of  Foreign  Millions."  Well,  that  wasn't  so 
very  far  out  of  the  way.  I  trust  the  sense  of  that  responsibility 
will  grow  upon  us.  I  didn't  get  the  letter  —  though  one  of  your 
secretaries  did  —  from  the  man  who  said  he  didn't  want  his  gift 
to  go  out  of  the  country  and  therefore  he  was  going  to  contribute 
it  to  the  American  Board!  Well,  if  we  must  have  ignorance,  that 
is  as  harmless  a  kind  as  any  I  know  of.  Still  it  is  better  for  us  to 
dissipate  the  ignorance,  and  in  our  practical  time,  with  such 
multiplied  agencies  as  seem  to  be  just  waiting  our  hand,  under 
Christ,  it  seems  to  me  we  ought  to  relieve  our  constituency  of 
very  much  of  this  ignorance  that  still  rests  upon  them  like  a  fog- 
bank  and  open  up  fields  of  larger  service  in  the  decade  that  is 
before  us,  larger  than  in  any  of  the  decades  that  have  gone  before. 


DISCUSSION  AS  TO  FUTURE  POLICY  OF  BOARD  AT  HOME.      277 


Discussion,  —  Rev.  H.  Melville  Tenney,  Berkeley,  Cal., 
District  Secretary  for  the  Pacific  Coast. 

Mr.  President:  May  I  say  one  word  with  reference  to  the  problem 
of  the  small  churches,  the  non-contributing  churches?  It  depends 
a  good  deal  upon  how  those  churches  are  planted,  whether  they 
are  going  to  be  contributors  for  the  world-wide  work  or  not.  Let 
me  illustrate  by  reference  to  the  churches  up  in  the  northwest  of 
our  great  country,  where,  as  they  say,  they  grow  umbrellas  out 
of  their  heads,  to  have  them  with  them  all  the  time  when  it  rains  — 
that  magnificent  empire  of  Washington.  I  had  the  privilege  of 
speaking  in  a  little  church  just  a  month  old  in  the  city  of  Tacoma, 
a  year  or  two  ago.  They  had  no  ceiling  to  their  building;  the 
building  itself  did  not  belong  to  the  church,  but  was  loaned  to  them. 
The  pastor  said,  after  I  had  spoken  to  that  interested,  bright-faced 
audience:  "We  are  just  a  month  old  today,  and  we  will  celebrate 
the  beginning  of  our  second  month  of  existence  by  taking  an 
offering  for  the  American  Board."  I  have  watched  the  growth  of 
that  church.  It  is  becoming  a  power  in  the  community,  and  its 
gifts  to  the  American  Board  are  doubling  up  every  year.  How 
was  it  planted?  I  venture  to  mention  the  name  of  the  person 
who  planted  it.  It  is  a  good  foreign  missionary  name,  and  a  good 
home  missionary  name,  —  Greene,  that  famous  Sunday-school 
worker  in  Washington.  All  Sunday-schools  that  are  organized 
in  that  state,  out  of  which  come  these  small  churches,  are  planted 
on  the  basis  of  the  kingdom.  Very  soon  those  Sunday-schools 
understand  that  their  work,  even  in  the  days  when  they  cannot 
pay  their  own  expenses,  is  to  be  in  part  a  contributionto  the  king- 
dom abroad.  They  annex  the  wide  field  to  their  little  parishes 
and  thus  get  a  broad  outlook  from  the  beginning.  From  churches 
thus  planted  in  Washington,  on  the  hillsides  and  by  the  streams 
and  in  the  woods,  you  will  not  have  much  trouble  to  get  offerings. 
That  is  one  of  the  reasons  why,  this  year,  Washington  has  made 
the  remarkable  gain  in  its  contributions  to  the  American  Board 
of  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  per  cent. 

Now,  if  we  can  have  all  our  churches  founded  and  pastors 
trained  so  that  they  will  recognize  that  their  field  is  the  world, 
and  not  merely  the  little  home  parish,  if  they  can  break  down  the 
walls  of  provincialism  and  see  the  vision  as  the  Master  saw  it,  and 


278  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

feel  the  throb  and  thrill  of  his  anxiety  for  the  world,  there  will  be 
no  trouble  about  non-contributing  churches. 

I  want  to  say  a  word  also  about  the  way  in  which  we  should 
multiply  our  agencies.  I  am  happy  in  having  able  volunteer 
helpers  on  the  Pacific  coast,  in  the  different  parts  of  that  great 
parish,  for  my  parish  is  as  large  as  any  of  yours.  You  can  swing  a 
line  eight  hundred  miles  from  San  Francisco  and  it  will  only  reach 
the  northern  border  of  it,  and  cut  a  little  beyond  the  southern 
border  and  barely  reach  the  eastern  limit.  To  include  Hawaii, 
making  it  the  western  border,  you  must  extend  the  line  to  twenty- 
five  hundred  miles  into  the  Pacific.  Being  so  far  distant  from  the 
remote  parts  of  my  district,  it  is  absolutely  impossible  for  me  to 
cultivate  them  without  local  assistance.  So  we  have  developed 
voluntary  field  secretaries  up  in  Washington  and  down  in  South- 
ern California.  I  wish  I  could  tell  you  of  the  self-denying  labors 
of  two  of  these  in  Washington.  One  of  them  is  here  in  this  meet- 
ing and  you  know  his  efficiency, — Rev.  E.  Lincoln  Smith,  —  and 
the  other  is  Dr.  Penrose.  They  have  worked  splendidly  this  year, 
as  they  do  every  year,  and  a  good  part  of  that  notable  gain  up 
there  is  to  be  attributed  to  their  efforts  in  sending  out  circulars, 
writing  personal  letters  to  pastors,  taking  the  missionary  when  we 
send  one  to  them,  and  making  out  his  itinerary  and  backing  him 
up.  In  Southern  California  one  pastor,  chairman  of  the  local 
committee  there,  Mr.  Larkin,  of  Ontario,  has  not  only  written 
circular  letters  and  sent  them  to  the  churches,  but  he  has  written 
seventy-five  or  a  hundred  personal  letters  to  different  members  in 
those  churches,  and  not  only  that,  but  he  has  organized  little 
group  meetings  of  pastors,  in  which  they  went  on  their  knees 
before  God  in  planning  the  campaign  for  their  churches.  Is  it 
any  wonder  that  Southern  California,  from  which  we  asked  an 
amount  double  what  it  gave  last  year,  gave  us  instead  of  this  a 
gain  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  per  cent? 

I  tell  you,  friends,  if  you  can  get  the  pastors  on  fire,  and  ready 
to  work  for  the  great  field,  in  moments  that  they  can  find  without 
sacrificing  their  own  work,  —  and  they  never  sacrifice  their  own 
work;  they  come  back  to  it  with  a  glow  and  an  enthusiasm  and 
a  spiritual  power  that  uplifts  their  own  people  every  time;  they 
are  better  men  for  the  home  work  if  they  do  this  work  for  the 
foreign  field,  —  it  will  go  far  toward  solving  the  problem.  I  thank 
God  that  I  am  privileged  to  work  alongside  of  such  men.  One 
man  out  of  this  congregation,  who  has  been  fired  with  the  desire 


DISCUSSION    AS  TO    FUTURE  POLICY   OF  BOARD  AT  HOME.      279 

to  reach  these  small  churches,  came  to  me  yesterday  and  said: 
"  I  am  ready  to  go  back  if  you  will  give  me  a  good  layman  and 
devote  next  year"  —  and  he  meant  without  any  pay  —  "to 
getting  the  non-contributing  churches  in  our  district  into  line." 
No  doubt  in  California  and  Oregon  and  Washington  there  will  be 
men  springing  up  all  along  the  line  ready  to  do  that  thing.  We 
don't  need  any  more  district  secretaries  out  there,  —  unless  you 
can  get  a  better  one  than  you  already  have,  and  that  is  easily 
done,  —  for  we  have  good  volunteer  secretaries  growing  up  that 
will  do  splendid  work,  without  pay,  in  all  parts  of  the  Pacific  coast. 


280  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 


THURSDAY  EVENING  SESSION. 

At  the  Methodist  church  the  Board  assembled  at  half  past 
seven  o'clock.  After  an  opening  hymn  Rev.  John  R.  Thurston 
offered  prayer.  Resolutions  were  adopted  which  have  been 
already  given,  for  the  sake  of  completeness  of  treatment,  in  the 
report  of  the  Thursday  afternoon  session. 

An  address  was  then  delivered  by  Rev.  S.  M.  Zwemer,  D.D.,  of 
Arabia,  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Reformed  Church. 
Rev.  F.  P.  Haggard,  Secretary  of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary 
Union,  offered  prayer.  Secretary  Barton  then  gave  his  address 
upon  the  "  Moslems  in  Turkey."  Greetings  were  received  from 
the  Woman's  Missionary  Union  of  the  Montgomery  Presbyterian 
Southern  churches,  at  that  time  holding  a  meeting  at  Lynchburg, 
Va.  The  third  address  was  by  Rev.  Henry  G.  Bissell,  of  India. 
In  speaking  upon  "  India's  Millions  for  Christ,"  he  referred  to 
messages  of  greeting  to  the  Board  which  had  been  received  from 
the  missionaries  and  converts  of  the  Marathi  Mission.  These  will 
be  found  printed  directly  after  his  address. 

The  meeting  closed  with  prayer  and  benediction  by  Rev. 
Edward  L.  Smith,  of  Seattle. 

At  the  Congregational  church  in  North  Adams  an  overflow 
meeting  was  held;  addresses,  of  which  there  is  no  full  report,  were 
delivered  by  Rev.  Douglas  Mackenzie,  D.D.,  president  of  Hartford 
Theological  Seminary,  upon  work  in  South  Africa,  and  by  Rev. 
Frederick  B.  Bridgman,  a  missionary  from  that  field.  There  were 
shorter  addresses  also  by  Rev.  L.  P.  Peet,  of  the  American  Board 
College  in  Foochow,  China,  and  Rev.  J.  G.  Chamberlain,  of  India. 
There  were  also  brief  talks  by  four  native  Christians,  Frederick 
R.  Ponce,  of  Mexico;  Rev.  0.  M.  Chamberlain,  of  Armenia; 
Rev.  S.  Sato,  of  Japan;  and  Philip  Reitinger,  of  Bohemia,  all  of 
whom  had  spoken  previously  on  Wednesday. 


THE    EVANGELIZATION  OF  'JUL   MOHAMMEDAN    WORLD.         281 


THE  EVANGELIZATION  OF  THE  MOHAMMEDAN  WORLD 
IN  THIS  GENERATION. 

Rev.  Samuel  M.  Zwemeb,  D.D.,  of  Arabia, 
A  Missionary  of  the  Reformed  Church. 

The  occasion  of  this  gathering  makes  our  subject  most  appro- 
priate, since  it  reminds  us  not  only  of  the  great  work  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board  in  the  Turkish  Empire,  but  of  the  fact  that  Samuel 
Mills  and  his  associates  were  not  unmindful  of  this  very  problem. 
We  read  that  "  Loomis  contended  it  was  premature;  that  if 
missionaries  should  be  sent  to  Asia  they  would  be  murdered; 
that  Christian  armies  must  first  subdue  the  country  before  the 
gospel  could  be  sent  to  the  Turks  and  the  Arabs."  We  know 
that  Loomis  was  wrong  and  Mills  right.  No  Christian  armies 
ever  subdued  Turkey  or  Arabia,  yet  both  are  mission  fields.  And 
then  this  is  the  year  of  the  Cairo  Conference.  The  appeal  from 
an  ecumenical  council-of-war,  such  as  that  gathering,  should  find 
echo  here  and  now.  The  great  task  to  which  Christ  calls  the 
church  in  this  century  is  the  evangelization  of  the  Mohammedan 
world.  In  urging  this  colossal  problem  upon  your  attention  as  a 
practical  one  we  are  not  unmindful  of 

I.  The  Vast  Proportions  of  the  Undertaking. 

To  belittle  it  would  be  to  belie  all  knowledge  of  its  character. 
Because  of  its  geographical  extent,  its  strength,  and  its  long  neglect 
by  the  church,  Islam  has  grown  to  gigantic  proportions.  Like  a 
mighty  Goliath  it  defies  the  armies  of  the  living  God  and  the 
progress  of  Christ's  kingdom!  In  three  continents  it  presents  an 
almost  unbroken  front,  and  is  armed  with  a  proud  and  aggressive 
spirit.  At  a  very  conservative  estimate  there  are  over  two 
hundred  and  thirty  million  Mohammedans,  one  seventh  of  the 
human  race!  Islam's  dominion  stretches  from  Sierra  Leone  in 
Africa  to  Canton  in  China,  and  from  the  steppes  of  Siberia  to 
Zanzibar  and  Sumatra.  In  China  there  are  thirty  million  Moslems; 
in  some  places  north  of  the  Yangtse  River  one  third  of  the  people 
belong  to  that  faith.  In  India  there  are  sixty-two  million  Moham- 
medans, and  the  real  problem  today  is  not  "  Krishna  or  Christ," 
but  Mohammed  or  the  Messiah.     One  seventh  of  the  whole  popu- 


282  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

lation  of  Asia  is  Moslem.  Every  third  man,  woman,  or  child  in 
Africa  is  a  believer  in  Mohammed.  The  total  Moslem  population 
of  Africa  is  over  fifty-eight  million,  while  there  are  already  four 
million  Moslems  south  of  the  equator,  and  the  number  is  daily 
increasing.  Nor  may  we  belittle  the  real  strength  of  Islam. 
Among  the  elements  of  real  strength  in  Islam  are  the  following 
truths  and  methods.  Violence  and  falsehood  are  never  elements 
of  strength  in  any  religion,  although  they  may  account  for  its 
rapid  spread  and  apparent  success.  Islam  is  a  religion  without 
caste.  It  ignores  all  distinctions  founded  upon  race,  color,  or 
nationality.  All  believers  belong  to  the  highest  caste,  and  all 
unbelievers  are  out-castes.  The  Hindoo  who  turns  Mohammedan 
loses  his  caste,  but  becomes  a  member  of  the  great  brotherhood 
of  Islam.  Slaves  have  held  thrones  and  founded  dynasties.  The 
first  one,who  led  the  call  to  prayer  was  Bilal,  a  Negro  of  Medina. 
Again,  its  creed  contains  much  fundamental  truth.  This  is  very 
plain,  if  we  repeat  the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  universal  symbol  of 
Christendom,  in  such  form  as  a  Moslem  would  accept :  "  I  believe 
in  God  .  .  .  Almighty,  maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  in  Jesus 
Christ  .  .  .  conceived  (miraculously)  and  born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary.  .  .  .  He  ascended  into  heaven,  .  .  .  and  from  thence  he 
shall  come.  ...  I  believe  ...  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the 
resurrection  of  the  body,  and  the  life  everlasting."  Although  the 
heart  of  the  creed  is  omitted,  namely,  the  Trinity  and  the  Atone- 
ment, how  much  remains  that  is  common  to  Christianity  and 
Islam !  What  a  contrast  to  heathen  religions  and  even  to  Judaism ! 
Intolerance  of  error  is  also  an  element  of  strength.  It  is  the 
Puritan  spirit  of  Islam;  and  although  iconoclastic,  and  often 
violent  to  the  point  of  fanaticism,  it  is  a  praiseworthy  trait  in  any 
religion.  Islam  has  in  it  the  stuff  that  martyrs  and  reformers 
are  made  of;  its  professors  are  "  valiant  for  the  truth  "  and  have 
the  spinal  column  of  conviction,  and  desire  for  conquest.  Islam 
is  one  of  the  few  missionary  religions  of  the  world.  It  began  with 
the  Saracen  conquest  and  continued  for  thirteen  centuries,  until 
the  Wahabi  revival,  and  the  Pan-Islamic  movement  of  today. 
In  the  words  of  the  Koran,  the  Moslem  must  "  fight  against 
infidels  till  strife  be  at  an  end  and  the  religion  is  God's  alone." 
All  these  elements  of  strength  have  become  deep  rooted  in  life, 
literature,  politics,  and  art,  by  the  lapse  of  thirteen  centuries. 
And  throughout  all  these  centuries  Islam  was  neglected  by  the 
church.     Between  Raymond  Lull  and  Henry  Martyn,  the  two 


THE   EVANGELIZATION  OF  THE  MOHAMMEDAN    WORLD.         283 

lonely  pioneers  who  tried  to  arouse  the  church,  five  centuries 
intervened  without  missions  to  Moslems.  The  church  was  ages 
behind  time  and  lost  splendid  opportunities.  In  Persia  one 
thousand  years,  in  Arabia  twelve  centuries,  passed  before  missions 
challenged  the  supremacy  of  Mohammed.  It  is  a  stupendous 
problem,  but  its  vast  proportions  do  not  take  away  our  respon- 
sibility, nor  may  we  seek  to  escape  the  task  by  denying 

II.  The  Necessity  of  this  Undertaking. 

The  Mohammedan  world  must  be  evangelized,  cost  what  it 
may,  for  Islam  is  inadequate  to  meet  the  needs  of  any  land  or  of 
a  single  soul.  The  facts  and  the  fruits  of  this  religion  prove  it. 
Its  distorted  theology  offers  no  worthy  conception  of  God,  and  is, 
on  the  authority  of  so  unprejudiced  a  judge  as  James  Freeman 
Clarke,  the  very  worst  form  of  monotheism.  Although  acknowl- 
edging Christ  as  a  prophet,  Islam  denies  the  deity,  the  Incarnation, 
and  the  atoning  death  of  Christ,  and  thus  by  its  thoroughly  anti- 
Christian  character  betrays  the  Son  of  Man,  like  Judas,  with  a 
kiss.  The  degraded  and  degrading  ethics  of  Islam  are  based  on 
a  low  ideal  of  character,  fixed  forever  as  the  high-water  mark  of 
holiness.  To  be  like  Mohammed  is  to  be  perfect.  The  deep- 
rooted  sensuality  of  the  prophet  has  borne  bitter  fruit  in  all  ages 
and  all  Moslem  lands.  The  first  chapter  of  Romans  is  a  true 
picture  of  the  conditions  existing  in  many  Moslem  lands  today; 
Baluchistan  and  Persia  are  examples.  Among  the  entire  Shiah 
sect,  numbering  ten  millions,  lying  (under  the  name  of  Kitman- 
ud-din)  has  become  a  fine  art,  sanctified  by  their  religion.  Islam 
is  spiritually  bankrupt. 

The  five  pillars  of  the  Mohammedan  faith  are  all  broken  reeds, 
by  the  solemn  test  of  age-long  experience;  because  their  creed  is 
only  a  half  truth,  and  its  "  pure  monotheism  "  does  not  satisfy 
the  soul's  need  of  a  mediator  and  an  atonement  for  sin.  Their 
prayers  are  formal  and  vain  repetitions,  without  demanding  or 
producing  holiness  in  the  one  that  uses  them.  Their  fasting  is 
productive  of  two  distinct  evils  wherever  observed;  it  manu- 
factures an  unlimited  number  of  hypocrites  who  profess  to  keep 
the  fast  and  do  not  do  so,  and  in  the  second  place  the  reaction, 
which  occurs  at  sunset  of  every  night  of  Ramadhan,  tends  to 
produce  revelling  and  dissipation  of  the  lowest  and  most  degrading 
type.     Their  almsgiving  stimulates  indolence,  and  has  produced 


284  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

that  worst  of  social  parasites  —  the  dervish  or  fakir.  Finally, 
their  'pilgrimages  to  Mecca  and  Medina  and  Kerbela  are  a  public 
scandal  even  to  Moslem  morality,  so  that  the  "  holy  cities  "  are 
hotbeds  of  vice,  and  plague  spots  in  the  body  politic. 

It  has  often  been  asserted  that  Islam  is  the  proper  religion  for 
Arabia.  The  Bedouin  now  say:  "  Mohammed's  religion  can 
never  have  been  intended  for  us;  it  demands  ablution,  but  we 
have  no  water;  fasting,  but  we  always  fast;  almsgiving,  but  we 
have  no  money;  pilgrimage,  but  Allah  is  everywhere."  And 
Palgrave's  prophecy  still  awaits  fulfillment:  "  When  the  Koran 
and  Mecca  shall  have  disappeared  from  Arabia,  then,  and  then 
only,  can  we  expect  to  see  the  Arab  assume  that  place  in  the 
ranks  of  civilization  from  which  Mohammed  and  his  book  have, 
more  than  any  other  cause,  long  held  him  back." 

Mohammedan  progress  in  Africa  is  progress  up  an  impasse.  It 
enables  the  pagans  to  advance  a  short  distance,  and  then  checks 
their  progress  by  an  impassable  wall  of  prejudice,  ignorance,  and 
spiritual  blindness.  Islam  can  do  for  the  Sudan  no  more  than  it 
did  for  Morocco. 

The  Mohammedan  world  is  without  Christ,  and,  therefore,  with- 
out hope  for  the  life  to  come.  There  is  no  hope  in  their  death. 
Solfian  el  Thuri,  a  companion  of  Mohammed,  cried  out  on  his 
death-bed:  "  I  am  going  on  a  way  I  know  not  of,  to  appear  before 
the  Lord  whom  I  have  never  seen."  Omar  ibn  el  Khattab,  one 
of  the  greatest  and  best  of  the  caliphs,  was  greatly  depressed  in 
view  of  death,  and  said,  "  Whom  are  ye  trying  to  deceive?  Had 
I  the  whole  East  and  the  West,  gladly  would  I  give  up  all  to  be 
delivered  from  this  awful  terror  that  is  hanging  over  me.  Would 
that  I  never  had  existed!  Would  that  my  mother  never  had 
borne  me!  " 

These  moral,  social,  and  spiritual  conditions  show  the  necessity 
of  evangelizing  the  Moslem  world.  There  is  no  hope  for  it,  save 
in  Christianity.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  missing  factor  in  their  creed. 
He  alone  can  purify  their  social  life.  He  alone  can  satisfy  their 
spiritual  hunger. 

So  vast,  so  long  neglected,  and  so  necessary  an  undertaking  as 
the  evangelization  of  the  Mohammedan  world  is  not  a  Utopian 
scheme,  but  an  entirely  practicable  and  possible  enterprise.  We 
emphasize 


THE  EVANGELIZATION  OF  THE  MOHAMMEDAN  WOULD.         285 

III.  The  Possibility  of  this  Undertaking. 

Here  and  now,  "  we  can  do  it  if  we  will,"  because  unprecedented 
opportunities  are  ours,  and  infinite  resources  are  at  our  disposal. 

The  present  political  division  of  the  Mohammedan  world  is  a 
challenge  of  world-wide  opportunity.  How  great  has  been  the 
fall  of  Islam  since  the  beginning  of  the  past  century!  She  has 
practically  lost  her  temporal  power,  and  never  again  will  the 
Crescent  rule  the  world.  The  area  of  the  present  caliphate  has 
dwindled  to  smaller  proportions  than  it  had  at  the  time  of  Moham- 
med's death.  Suleiman  the  Magnificent  would  not  recognize 
in  the  Ottoman  provinces  that  which  was  once  a  world-kingdom. 
Only  eighteen  millions  out  of  two  hundred  and  thirty  million 
Moslems  are  under  the  political  control  of  the  sultan.  Much 
more  than  one  half  of  the  Moslem  population  of  the  world  is  under 
Christian  rule. 

A  consideration  of  the  languages  spoken  by  Moslems  today  is 
a  further  proof  of  unprecedented  opportunity.  Once  the  Moham- 
medan world  was  Arabian,  now  it  is  polyglot.  The  Koran  is  an 
Arabic  book  and  has  never  been  translated  by  Moslems  into  other 
languages  for  religious  use.  It  is  an  unintelligible  book  to  three 
fourths  of  its  readers.  What  spiritual  comfort  have  the  twenty 
million  Chinese  Moslems  from  the  Arabic  they  repeat  daily  in 
their  prayers?  How  little  of  the  real  meaning  of  Islam  is  plain 
to  the  sixty-two  millions  of  India,  nearly  all  ignorant  of  Arabic! 
But  the  Bible,  —  sharper  than  any  two-edged  Saracen  blade  and 
our  weapon  of  warfare,  —  the  Bible  speaks  all  languages  and  is 
the  best  printed  and  cheapest  selling  book  in  the  world.  This 
universal,  everlasting,  glorious  gospel  is  not  handicapped  as  is  the 
Koran,  which  by  form  and  matter  is  wholly  and  hopelessly  pro- 
vincial. The  Beirut  Press  has  issued  over  a  million  volumes  of 
the  Arabic  scriptures  since  it  was  founded.  The  demand  for  the 
vernacular  Bible  in  Arabia,  Persia,  and  the  Turkish  empire  is 
phenomenal.  Not  only  has  the  Bible  been  translated  into  every 
Moslem  tongue,  but  a  large  and  important  body  of  Christian 
literature,  controversial  and  educational,  is  ready  for  Moslems. 
This  is  specially  true  of  Arabic,  Persian,  Turkish,  Urdu,  and 
Bengali,  the  chief  literary  languages  of  Islam.  Every  Moham- 
medan objection  to  Christianity  has  been  met  in  printed  apologetic. 
The  weapons  are  ready  for  the  conflict. 

The  disintegration  of  Islam  makes  possible  the  speedy  evan- 


286  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

gelization  of  Moslem  lands.  Not  only  have  the  literary  weapons 
been  forged  and  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  prepared  for  the  conquest, 
but  the  ranks  of  the  enemy  are  breaking.  Mighty  and  irresistible 
forces  are  at  work  in  Islam  itself  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  coming 
of  the  King.  Thousands  of  Moslems  have  grown  dissatisfied  with 
their  old  faith,  and  of  tens  of  thousands,  one  can  scarcely  assert 
that  they  are  Moslems  at  all,  save  in  mere  name. 

The  Wahabi  movement  in  Arabia,  the  Shathaliyas  in  Syria, 
the  widespread  teaching  of  false  Mahdis  and  Messiahs,  the  growth 
of  mysticism,  and  the  undermining  of  the  old  orthodox  Islam  by 
the  rationalistic  new  Islam,  —  all  these  are  signs  of  the  coming 
dawn,  and  are  pregnant  with  opportunity.  From  every  quarter 
comes  testimony  that  the  attitude  of  Moslems  toward  Christianity 
has  changed  for  the  better  in  the  past  decade.  In  India,  Islam 
has  abandoned  controversial  positions  which  were  once  thought 
impregnable.  Instead  of  denying  the  integrity  of  the  Bible  they 
now  write  commentaries  on  it.  Fanaticism  decreases  with  the 
march  of  civilization  and  commerce.  The  cradle  of  Islam  is  a 
mission  field,  and  a  railway  is  being  built  to  Mecca  by  the  sultan 
for  the  King  of  kings. 

Every  strategic  center  of  population  in  the  Mohammedan 
world  is  already  occupied  for  Christ.  This  startling  fact  shows 
the  guiding  hand  of  God  in  preparation  for  the  conflict.  I  took 
the  World's  Almanac  for  1906  and  found  the  list  of  cities  which 
have  over  one  hundred  thousand  inhabitants.  These  are  the 
places  where  work  is  now  carried  on  for  Moslems,  directly  or 
indirectly:  Calcutta,  Constantinople,  Bombay,  Cairo,  Hyderabad, 
Alexandria,  Teheran,  Lucknow,  Rangoon,  Damascus,  Delhi, 
Lahore,  Smyrna,  Cawnpore,  Agra,  Tabriz,  Allahabad,  Tunis, 
Bagdad,  Fez,  Aleppo,  and  Beirut.  This  is  not  a  mere  coincidence, 
but  a  fact  full  of  meaning,  and  a  challenge  of  God's  providence  to 
win  and  use  these  Gibraltars  of  population,  in  the  midst  of  the 
teeming  millions  of  Islam,  as  points  of  vantage  for  Jesus  Christ 
and  his  kingdom. 

In  some  Moslem  lands,  fifty  years  ago  without  a  Protestant 
missionary,  every  key-position  is  now  a  mission  station. 

Results  already  achieved  prove  the  possibility  of  evangelizing 
these  millions.  Less  than  a  century  ago  there  was  not  one 
Protestant  worker  in  any  Moslem  land.  At  that  time,  apostasy 
from  Islam  meant  death  to  the  apostate.  Now  there  are  Moslem 
converts  in  every  land  where  work  has  been  attempted,  fanaticism 


THE  EVANGELIZATION  OF  THE  MOHAMMEDAN  WORLD.    287 

has  decreased,  and  many  converted  Moslems  are  preaching  the 
gospel.  In  North  India  there  are  nearly  two  hundred  Christian 
pastors,  catechists,  or  teachers  who  are  converts  or  the  children 
of  converts  from  Islam.  There  is  hardly  a  Christian  congregation 
in  the  Punjab  which  does  not  have  some  members  formerly  in  the 
ranks  of  Islam.  Thousands  of  Moslem  youth  are  receiving  a 
Christian  education  in  Egypt,  India,  Java,  and  Sumatra.  In 
Java  and  Sumatra  there  are  over  twenty-four  thousand  living 
converts  from  Islam.  Some  belong  to  self-supporting  churches. 
And  in  Java  alone  there  are  from  three  to  four  hundred  converts 
annually.  The  results,  however,  are  meagre  in  comparison  with 
the  resources,  both  material  and  spiritual,  which  are  at  our  dis- 
posal in  answer  to  prayer  and  which  have  never  been  used  in  this 
conflict.  The  Mohammedan  world  is  a  challenge  to  our  faith,  — 
faith  that  can  remove  mountains.  The  power  of  prevailing 
prayer  has  never  yet  been  adequately  applied  by  the  church  to 
this  mighty  problem.  We  need  a  consuming  love  and  a  willing- 
ness to  suffer.  With  an  army  of  missionaries  like  Henry  Martyn 
or  Bishop  French,  what  might  not  be  accomplished  in  a  single 
generation?  Were  the  church  awake  to  this  great  problem,  and 
were  our  efforts  at  all  commensurate  with  our  opportunities,  it 
would,  I  believe,  be  possible  to  carry  the  gospel  throughout  every 
Moslem  land  in  this  generation.  Not  only  can  we  do  it,  but  we 
m  ust  do  it .     Consider,  finally, 

IV.  The  Urgency  of  this  Undertaking. 

The  whole  horizon  of  the  Mohammedan  world  is  lurid  with  a 
storm  that  may  burst  upon  us  at  any  moment.  Islam  has  always 
been,  and  is  now,  aggressive.  Its  numbers  are  increasing  toda}^ 
in  India,  Burma,  the  East  Indies,  West  Africa,  Uganda,  the  Congo 
Basin,  and  all  Abyssinia.  In  West  Africa  and  Nigeria  mission- 
aries speak  of  a  "  Mohammedan  peril."  Dr.  Miller  testifies  that 
the  number  of  Moslems  is  increasing  greatly  in  West  Africa. 
"  Islam  and  Christianity  between  them  are  spoiling  heathenism, 
and  will  probably  divide  the  pagan  peoples  in  less  than  fifty  years." 
Rev.  A.  D.  Dixey  says  of  Khelat,  in  Baluchistan,  that  the  inhabi- 
tants are  only  nominal  Mohammedans  and  are  bigoted.  "  They 
will  listen  now,  but  in  a  few  years  they  will  have  become  fa- 
natical. Now  is  the  chance  to  evangelize  them."  The  Sudan 
United  Mission  calls  the  attention  of  Christendom  to  the  crisis 
in  Hansa-land.    All  the  heathen  populations  of  the  central  Sudan 


288  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

will  go  over  to  Islam  unless  the  church  awakes  to  its  opportunity. 
It  is  now  or  never;  it  is  Islam  or  Christ!  The  activity  of  the 
numerous  dervish  orders,  especially  of  the  Sanusiya  dervishes, 
the  unrest  in  Egypt  and  Arabia,  the  insolent  threats  against 
Christians  in  Sumatra,  the  Pan-Islamic  movement  with  its 
dozen  publications, —  all  these  are  signs  of  the  times. 

Dr.  Hartman,  of  Berlin,  writing  as  a  statesman,  said  recently: 
"  The  peoples  of  Europe  should  never  forget  that  the  spread  of 
Mohammedanism  is  a  great  danger  to  Christian  civilization  and 
culture,  and  that  cooperation  among  themselves  against  the 
extension  of  its  influence  and  power  is  one  of  the  crying  needs  of 
the  hour." 

Archibald  R.  Colquhoun,  in  a  remarkable  article  in  the  North 
American  Review  for  June  on  Pan-Islam,  states:  "  The  outlook 
for  those  Christian  European  powers  which  have  large  African 
possessions  and  spheres  of  influence  is  increasingly  grave.  .  .  . 
Pan-Islamites  must  not  be  too  sure  that  the  spirit  they  are  evok- 
ing in  the  Dark  Continent  is  one  that  will  remain  under  their 
control." 

Sir  Edward  Grey's  address  in  the  House  of  Commons,  on  the 
situation  in  Egypt,  was  a  warning  not  to  speak  against  the 
Liberal  ministry  above  a  whisper,  lest  the  avalanche  of  Moslem 
fanaticism  should  fall.  In  Sumatra,  we  are  told,  the  Armenian 
massacres  stimulated  their  fanaticism  so  much  as  to  produce 
insolent  threats  against  Christians.  The  Japanese  war  has 
aroused  hopes  that  all  Europeans  will  eventually  be  expelled. 
The  visit  of  the  German  emperor  to  the  sultan  was  regarded  as 
an  act  of  homage,  and  the  present  of  horses  which  he  brought  as 
a  payment  of  tribute. 

We  must  meet  this  Pan-Islamic  challenge,  but  not  on  a  political 
basis.  The  weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not  carnal,  but  mighty 
through  God's  Spirit.  The  love  of  Jesus  Christ,  incarnated  in 
hospitals,  in  schools,  in  tactful  preaching,  and  in  the  lives  of 
devoted  missionaries,  will  irresistibly  win  Moslems  and  disarm 
their  fanaticism.  We  have  nothing  to  fear  save  our  own  sloth 
and  inactivity.  The  time  is  ripe  for  a  world-wide  spiritual 
crusade  for  the  conquest  of  Islam.  "  God  wills  it."  "Father,  the 
hour  is  come.  Glorify  thy  son."  His  rightful  glory  has  been 
given  to  Mohammed  for  many  ages  in  these  many  lands.  Glorify 
thyself,  0  Christ,  by  the  victory  in  this  conflict.  "  God  wills  it." 
—  the  evangelization  of  the  Mohammedan  world  in  this  veneration. 


MOSLEMS   IN   TURKEY.  289 


MOSLEMS  IN  TURKEY. 

Rev.  James  L.  Barton,  D.D., 

Secretary  of  the  Foreign  Department. 

This  is  the  first  time  that  the  question  of  missionary  work  for 
Moslems  has  been  openly  discussed  upon  the  platform  of  the 
American  Board.  Hitherto  it  has  been  feared  that  Moslem 
fanaticism  might  rise  in  violence  against  the  missionaries  at  the 
front  if  it  were  plainly  stated  that  this  Board  is  endeavoring, 
through  its  missionaries,  to  make  Jesus  Christ  in  his  beauty  and 
saving  power  known  to  the  followers  of  Mohammed.  For  nearly 
four  score  and  ten  years  we  have  maintained  a  silence  that  has 
been  misinterpreted,  both  in  the  East  and  in  the  West.  Widely 
has  the  uncontradicted  but  erroneous  statement  been  circulated 
that  "  mission  boards  are  not  working  for  the  Christianization  of 
Moslems  "  and  that  "  no  Moslems  become  Christian." 

Last  April  witnessed  a  long  step  in  advance  in  the  conference 
in  Cairo,  Egypt,  where  some  seventy  delegates  assembled  from 
all  over  the  world  to  discuss  this  question.  Since  the  conference 
was  in  a  Moslem  country,  secrecy  was  maintained  at  that  time, 
to  prevent  the  breaking  up  of  the  gathering.  Two  volumes  are 
soon  to  be  issued  from  the  press  of  the  Revells,  giving  to  the  world 
a  full  report  of  the  proceedings  of  the  first  great  world  conference 
of  Christians  upon  the  subject  of  Mohammedanism  and  its  relation 
to  Christianity.  Can  we  better  observe  this  centennial  of  a  grand 
advance  in  the  aggressive  spiritual  conquest  of  the  world  than  by 
inaugurating  a  new  advance  into  a  world  occupied  by  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty  million  souls  who  know  neither  the  Christ  nor  the 
Father? 

The  new  century  of  American  foreign  missions  calls  for  a  new 
vision  of  the  Moslem  world  in  its  strength,  its  needs,  its  accessi- 
bility, its  promise,  as  well  as  in  its  antagonism  to  Christ  and  to 
those  who  bear  his  name. 

The  American  Board  comes  into  contact  with  Mohammedans  in 
fourteen  of  its  missions,  only  four  of  which  are  under  a  Moham- 
medan government.  In  ten  of  the  missions  in  which  we  are  at 
work,  and  where  Moslems  dwell,  like  India,  China,  Africa,  and 
Mindanao  in  the  Philippines,  there  is  ample  religious  liberty  so 


290  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

far  as  the  government  is  concerned.  Our  four  missions  in  Turkey 
are  entirely  under  a  Mohammedan  government,  where  the  state 
is  identified  with  Islam.  Here  there  is  no  liberty  for  a  Moham- 
medan to  change  his  religion,  while  nearly  all  of  the  high  official 
positions  in  the  military  and  civil  lists  are  filled  by  Mohammedans 
alone.  They  control  the  processes  of  the  government  and,  in 
spite  of  many  promises  granting  freedom  of  conscience  to  all 
subjects  of  the  empire,  they  are  able  so  to  administer  the  affairs 
of  state  that  Moslems  clearly  understand  that  no  change  of  religion 
will  be  tolerated. 

Significant  Facts  in  the  Turkey  Field. 

Turkey  occupies  a  position  strategic  to  the  Moslem  world.  In 
its  geographical  location  it  commands  the  entrance  to  Persia,  and 
is  in  close  proximity  to  the  North  Africa  Mohammedan  states  and 
to  Arabia.  The  sultan  of  Turkey  holds  in  his  possession  the  sacred 
cities  of  the  two  hundred  and  thirty  million  Mohammedans  of  the 
world.  He  alone  is  the  guardian  of  the  cities  of  Mecca  and  Medina, 
to  which  Moslem  pilgrims  resort  by  thousands  each  year.  He  is 
also  the  custodian  of  the  sacred  relics  of  Mohammed,  kept  in  the 
seraglio  at  Constantinople.  For  four  hundred  years  the  sultan 
of  Turkey  has  held  the  undisputed  title  of  "  caliph  "  of  the  Moslem 
world.  No  one  knows  just  how  much  this  may  mean,  and  yet 
we  know  that  to  no  other  city  and  to  no  other  monarch  do  the 
Mohammedans  of  all  races  look  with  the  same  universal  reverence 
with  which  they  look  to  the  sultan  of  Turkey,  and  to  the  city  of 
the  sacred  relics.  Politically  and  religiously  Turkey  is  the  strong- 
hold of  Islam,  and  the  sultan  of  Turkey  is  its  supreme  high  priest. 

Turkey  Mohammedan.  There  are  in  Turkey,  in  the  fields  in 
which  this  Board  is  at  work,  between  ten  and  twelve  million 
Mohammedans.  These  include  all  of  the  official  classes  in  the 
Turkish  empire  north  of  Syria,  as  well  as  a  great  mass  of  peas- 
antry. These  do  not  represent  a  homogeneous  race,  but  different 
races,  often  preying  upon  one  another,  and  frequently  in  open 
hostility  to  the  central  government.  These  Moslem  peoples 
include  the  Turks  of  Asia  Minor,  the  Albanians  of  Macedonia,  the 
Kurds  of  Eastern  Turkey,  the  Caucasians  of  Asia  Minor  and 
Eastern  Turkey,  besides  Turcomans  of  northern  Syria.  The 
dominant  people  are  the  Turks.  The  other  races  mentioned  are 
more  or  less  loyal,  according  to  circumstances.  By  far  the  greater 
number  of  Moslems  in  Turkey  are  peasants  who  live  a  simple  life, 


MOSLEMS    IN    TURKEY.  291 

taking  little  interest  in  the  government  or  in  religion.  These  are 
ignorant  for  the  most  part,  are  gentle,  hospitable,  and  upon  the 
whole  inclined  to  be  kindly  disposed.  Owing  to  the  long  conflict 
with  Christian  races,  the  ruling  Turks  are  generally  strongly 
fanatical  in  religious  matters.  The  peasant  in  the  remoter  dis- 
tricts does  not  take  his  religion  so  seriously. 

The  Mohammedans  of  no  country  have  ever  had  an  opportunity 
to  know  Jesus  Christ  in  his  beauty  and  power.  From  the  first, 
Islam  has  been  in  conflict  with  Christianity,  attempting  to  con- 
quer by  the  sword  of  Mohammed  the  Christian  races  to  which  it 
had  access,  until  it  was  stayed  in  its  onward  progress  at  the  walls 
of  Vienna  in  1683.  All  war  is  holy  war  with  the  Mohammedans, 
and  holy  war  with  them  has  always  been  war  with  Christians. 
Their  histories,  oral  or  written,  record  and  repeat  the  story  of 
the  Crusades,  the  conflict  with  the  Christians  in  Spain,  their  clash 
at  arms  with  the  Greeks,  Armenians,  and  Russians,  as  well  as 
with  other  Christian  peoples,  until  they  have  nearly  incapacitated 
themselves  to  think  of  Christians  in  any  other  light  than  as  people 
to  be  conquered  or  forcibly  resisted.  All  of  these  experiences 
with  Christianity,  until  modern  missions  were  begun  among  them, 
made  them  only  hate  the  name  of  Christ.  They  had  seen  little  or 
nothing  of  the  gentleness,  beauty,  and  strength  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Every  Moslem  tradition  and  national  experience  is  hostile  to 
Christianity. 

Religious  liberty  in  Turkey.  If  all  that  is  required  in  a  country, 
to  assure  full  religious  liberty,  is  a  decree  to  that  effect  from  the 
highest  authority  in  the  realm,  then  the  subjects  of  Turkey  have 
religious  liberty.  If  it  means  freedom  to  worship  God  according 
to  the  dictates  of  one's  conscience,  then  there  is  little  religious 
liberty  in  Turkey  for  its  Moslem  subjects.  In  1839  an  imperial 
rescript  was  issued,  guaranteeing  protection  to  every  subject  of 
the  empire  irrespective  of  race  or  religion.  In  1843  a  youth  of 
twent)'-  years  was  beheaded  in  the  streets  of  Constantinople,  and 
his  body  exposed  in  the  streets  for  three  days,  because  after  once 
declaring  himself  a  Mohammedan  he  had  become  a  Christian. 
Under  pressure  from  the  European  powers  the  sultan,  in  1844, 
gave  a  written  pledge  that  he  would  take  effectual  measures  to 
prevent  further  persecution  for  changes  in  religious  belief.  This 
was  repeated  in  the  famous  Hatti  Sherif  of  1856,  which  was  under- 
stood by  the  Moslems  as  guaranteeing  to  them  imperial  protection 
even  though  they  should  change  their  religion.     The  Treaty  of 


292  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

Paris  that  year  recognized  this  imperial  edict  as  pledging  the 
government  of  Turkey  to  full  religious  liberty  for  all  its  subjects. 

Mohammedans  began  openly  to  purchase  copies  of  the  Turkish 
Testament,  and  to  study  Christianity.  Turks  in  considerable 
numbers,  in  different  parts  of  the  empire,  became  Christians  and 
were  baptized.  Among  these  were  some  officials,  and  in  one 
instance  in  Constantinople  a  Turkish  Inman,  or  preacher,  began 
openly  to  proclaim  Christ.  By  1860  fifteen  Moslem  converts  had 
been  baptized  in  Constantinople  alone,  and  the  spirit  of  inquiry 
spread  up  to  1864.  In  the  summer  of  that  year,  as  the  Turkish 
congregation  was  coming  from  its  Sabbath  morning  service,  the 
preacher  and  some  twenty  members  were  arrested  and,  without 
trial,  some  of  them  were  sent  into  exile. 

From  that  day  to  the  present  time  Moslems  have  been  made 
to  understand  that  there  is  no  liberty  for  them  to  embrace  Chris- 
tianity. In  spite  of  this  fact,  many  Moslems  have  accepted  Jesus 
Christ  as  Redeemer  and  Lord,  for  which  confession  some  have  fled 
the  country,  others  have  met  severe  persecution  there,  while  not 
a  few  have  been  quietly  put  to  death. 

These  conditions  have  prevented  open  effort  for  the  Moham- 
medans, and  have  made  Moslems  who  have  become  believers  in 
Christ  slow  to  make  public  profession  of  their  faith.  At  the  same 
time  Mohammedans  have  not  been  indifferent  to  the  Christian 
effort  put  forth  for  them. 

Christian  Missions  are  Strongly  Intrenched  in  the  Turkish 

Empire. 

Beginning  with  1819  Christian  missionaries  have  been  laying 
foundations  in  that  country  for  Christian  institutions.  One  after 
another,  the  great  strategic  centers  in  the  empire  have  been  occu- 
pied, until  at  the  present  time  in  Constantinople,  in  Smyrna,  in 
Damascus,  in  Salonica,  in  Beirut,  in  Bagdad,  and  in  a  hundred 
other  cities,  there  are  established  substantial  evangelical  churches, 
Christian  schools  of  all  grades,  and  in  many  of  them  Christian 
hospitals,  for  both  men  and  women.  At  Constantinople  and 
Beirut  there  are  extensive  publishing  houses,  that  are  issuing 
annually  millions  of  pages  of  Christian  literature  in  every  language 
spoken  by  the  leading  races  of  the  empire. 

Over  six  hundred  foreign  missionaries,  representing  both 
European  and  American  societies,  are  located  at  these  important 
centers  of  missionary  operation.     It  is  true  that  for  the  most  part 


MOSLEMS    IN   TURKEY.  293 

the  effort  of  these  missionaries  has  been  directed  hitherto,  not  to 
reaching  the  Moslem  populations,  but  to  the  evangelization  of  the 
nominally  Christian  races,  like  the  Syrians,  Armenians,  Greeks, 
and  Bulgarians.  In  Syria,  and  in  the  southern  and  western  por- 
tions of  Asia  Minor,  the  Christians  and  the  Turks  speak  the  same 
language,  so  that  the  missionaries  in  those  regions  are  able  to 
converse  freely  with  the  Moslems,  and  they  in  turn  can  under- 
stand the  language  used  in  public  worship.  This  is  not  the  case 
in  the  northern  and  eastern  portions  of  the  country. 

In  addition  to  this  missionary  force,  there  are  in  the  country 
over  two  thousand  trained  native  Christian  pastors,  preachers, 
evangelists,  and  teachers  who  speak  the  languages  of  the  country. 

Preparations  for  Advance. 

1.  Mission  stations  are  planted  in  all  parts  of  the  empire,  and 
missionaries  upon  the  ground  in  large  numbers  know  the  country 
and  the  character  and  needs  of  the  Mohammedans.  They  speak 
the  language  of  the  Moslems,  enjoy  their  confidence,  and  have 
access  to  them. 

2.  Colleges  are  firmly  established  from  the  Black  Sea  to  Arabia, 
and  from  Persia  to  Greece,  in  which  Mohammedans  can  be 
received,  but  where  Christian  young  men  and  women  of  other 
races  are  trained  in  the  Turkish  and  Arabic  language  in  prepara- 
tion for  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  Mohammedans.  Thousands 
of  graduates  from  these  schools  are  found  today  in  all  parts  of 
the  empire. 

While  the  highest  of  the  Christian  educational  institutions  of 
the  country  are  attended  by  but  few  Moslem  pupils,  the  thirst  for 
the  new  learning  is  present  among  the  Mohammedans  also,  and 
they  have  introduced  much  that  is  modern  into  their  own  national 
schools.  Many  of  the  official  classes  have  taken  courses  of  study 
in  Europe,  and  are  thus  the  champions  of  a  better  educational 
system  for  their  own  youth  of  both  sexes.  In  many  a  Christian 
school  today  in  Turkey,  Moslem  and  Christian  youths  recite  in 
the  same  classes,  join  in  the  same  sports,  and  regard  each  other  as 
friends. 

3.  Publication  work  is  well  established,  and  in  spite  of  a  strict 
censorship,  millions  of  pages  of  enlightening  literature,  as  well  as 
that  which  is  directly  Christian,  are  issued  annually  from  the 
mission  presses.  This  work  can  be  almost  indefinitely  increased 
in  new  languages,  so  that  every  Moslem  race  in  Turkey  can  thereby 


294  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

be  directly  reached.  The  extensive  educational  institutions  in 
the  empire  give  to  the  publication  work  greatly  enhanced  power 
and  influence. 

The  wide  circulation  of  Christian  literature  in  the  Turkish  and 
Arabic  languages  "has  already  had  boundless  influence.  All 
modern  scientific  and  historic  literature  is  anti-Mohammedan. 
For  nearly  ninety  years  the  mission  presses  have  been  kept  busy 
with  printing  a  religious  and  educational  literature  in  the  languages 
read  by  the  Moslems.  This  has  been  more  widely  circulated  than 
any  power  upon  earth  can  trace.  Moslems  read  and  discuss  what 
to  them  are  the  marvels  of  modern  science  and  the  revelations  of 
history.  By  this  they  are  lifted  out  of  their  old  narrow  life  and 
thought  and  made  to  live  in  a  new  and  modern  world.  The  Bible, 
also,  in  whole  and  in  parts,  has  been  printed  and  circulated  among 
the  Moslems  by  millions  of  copies.  These  are  not  given  away,  but 
sold,  insuring  a  reading  and  careful  preservation.  Last  year, 
upon  the  press  at  Beirut  alone,  nearly  fifty  million  pages  of  the 
Bible  in  Arabic  were  printed  for  circulation  among  Moslems 
exclusively.  The  Mohammedans  as  a  class  are  not  today  ignorant 
of  the  true  character  of  Jesus  Christ  or  of  the  teachings  of  the 
gospels. 

4.  The  lives  of  the  missionaries,  during  the  nearly  three  genera- 
tions of  occupancy  of  that  country,  have  had  a  mighty  effect  in 
breaking  down  old  prejudices  against  Christianity.  The  Moham- 
medan appreciates  a  life  of  self-sacrificing  service  for  others,  and 
to  them  this  has  become  an  entirely  new  revelation  of  the  spirit 
of  Christianity.  They  have  seen  this  spirit  multiplied  in  the  lives 
of  native  Christians,  and  have  noted  the  fact  that  those  who  take 
the  New  Testament  as  their  standard  live  cleaner,  more  honest, 
and  more  truthful  lives.  In  this  way  they  have  been  led  to  see 
the  beauty  that  there  is  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  belief  in  him  works  a  change  to  human  life  that  is  praise- 
worthy. In  the  wide  contact  of  the  Moslems  with  missionaries 
and  native  evangelical  Christians  throughout  the  empire,  they 
have  come  to  hold  an  opinion  of  Christianity  widely  different  from 
that  held  when  mission  work  began  there  in  1819. 

5.  The  Moslems  of  Turkey  have  taken  careful  note  of  the  fact 
that  out  of  Christianity  there  grows  a  better  society.  They  have 
observed  the  Christian  home  that  springs  up  wherever  girls  are 
educated.  They  recognize  the  fact  that  every  Christian  com- 
munity supports  schools  for  the  education  of  its  boys  and  girls; 


MOSLEMS    1\    n  RKEY.  295 

that  industries  are  fostered,  and  sobriety  enforced,  and  honesty 
and  truthfulness  demanded.  They  have  observed  that  the 
Christian  community  is  more  aggressive  and  more  prosperous  than 
others,  and  they  attribute  this  great  change  to  their  religion. 
The  Christian  hospital  and  the  orphan  asylums,  scattered  far  and 
wide  in  the  land,  are  teaching  Turks  a  daily  lesson  of  Him  who 
came  and  lived  on  earth  a  servant  of  others,  a  healer  of  human  ills, 
and  a  benefactor  of  mankind.  After  two  generations  of  observa- 
tion and  experiences,  in  spite  of  prejudice  and  hatred  and  bigotry, 
the  lesson  has  been  better  learned  than  many  of  us  are  aware. 

6.  Undoubtedly  the  Mohammedans  expect  the  missionaries  to 
press  upon  them  the  superior  claims  of  Jesus  Christ.  Great 
numbers  of  them  have  read  the  New  Testament  and  the  life  and 
teachings  of  Paul.  They  know  that  Christianity  demands  of  its 
followers  that  they  preach  Him  to  all  men.  They  know  that,  in  so 
far  as  Christians  in  Turkey  have  failed  hitherto  to  do  this,  they 
have  failed  in  their  devotion  to  Him  whom  they  profess  to  serve  as 
master.  They  would  respect  the  purpose  of  Christians  to  exalt 
the  Christ  before  the  Mohammedans  of  that  country,  even  though 
they  might  oppose  the  effort.  Only  thus  can  the  respect  lost  by 
the  failures  of  the  past  be  regained  in  the  future. 

Ways  of  Advancing. 

In  view  of  these  facts  has  not  the  time  come  for  us  as  a  mission 
board  to  make  a  decided  advance: 

1.  By  sending  more  missionaries  into  Turkey,  not  to  devote 
their  time  and  energies  to  the  nominal  Christian  races,  but  to  give 
themselves  to  the  twelve  million  Moslems  that  dwell  in  all  parts 
of  the  empire,  for  whose  evangelization  little  or  no  direct  effort 
is  now  made. 

2.  By  designating  missionaries  to  work  directly  among  the 
Kurds,  who  are  a  strong,  sturdy,  able  race,  occupying  the  moun- 
tain regions  along  the  upper  waters  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates 
rivers.  These  probably  number,  including  all  the  different  tribes, 
not  less  than  three  million  souls,  and  for  them,  at  the  present  time, 
no  missionaries  are  exclusively  at  work. 

3.  By  sending  missionaries  to  the  Albanians  in  Western  Meso- 
potamia, who  are  Moslems  by  name,  but  who  are  already  pleading 
for  missionaries  to  reside  among  them.  A  slight  work  has  been 
begun  in  their  country  and,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  the  race  is  ready 
to  listen  to  Christian  instruction  and  to  give  the  Christian  mission- 


296  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

ary  a  welcome.  Within  the  last  year  an  Albanian  prince  has 
pleaded  with  us  in  person  to  open  work  among  that  most  ancient 
and  yet  most  savage  race  in  all  Europe.  We  are  assured  of  a 
welcome  among  that  people,  numbering  some  two  million  souls. 

4.  By  developing  the  medical  work  to  reach  more  fully  all 
Moslem  races,  and  so  demonstrate  to  them  the  brotherhood  and 
sympathy  of  Christianity  as  it  reveals  itself  in  practical  life.  The 
medical  missionary  will  receive  a  welcome  into  every  Moham- 
medan tribe,  race,  or  community,  and  his  work  will  meet  always 
and  everywhere  a  quick  and  hearty  response.  Turkey  could 
almost  be  won  today  by  the  Christian  physician. 

5.  By  planning  to  assist  the  Turks  in  organizing  and  conducting 
schools  of  all  classes  and  grades.  The  time  is  approaching  when 
they  will  be  asking  for  this  help  even  more  loudly  than  they  do 
today.  We  should  have  in  the  country  forces  sufficient  to  enable 
us  to  join  hands  with  them  in  putting  their  educational  system 
upon  a  modern,  permanent  basis. 

6.  By  preparing  and  issuing  a  new,  not  controversial  but  con- 
structive, literature  in  large  quantities  and  of  great  variety,  in 
the  language  of  the  Mohammedans.  This  literature  should  not 
consist  of  mere  translations,  but  must  be  produced  by  able  men 
who  know  both  the  mind  and  belief  of  the  Moslem,  as  well  as  the 
essentials  of  Christianity. 

7.  By  so  organizing  our  forces  that  we  can  present  to  every 
Moslem  in  Turkey  such  a  vision  of  the  Christ  that  he  will  see  the 
beauty  of  his  life  and  character  and  be  led  to  exclaim,  "  My  Lord 
and  my  God!  " 


India's  million's   fob  CHRIST.  297 


INDIA'S  MILLIONS  FOR  CHRIST. 
Rev.  Henry  G.  Bissell,  of  Ahmednagar,  India. 

We  are  on  the  second  half  of  the  first  decade  of  the  twentieth 
century.  You  cannot  name  another  five  years  in  the  history  of 
this  country  in  which  its  citizens  have  done  more  for  the  world's 
welfare. 

The  testimony  of  all  who  traverse  the  other  countries,  with 
eyes  to  see,  is  that  everywhere  through  the  Eastern  world  there  are 
substantial  signs  of  the  good  which  Americans  are  doing,  through 
men  and  money  given  in  the  battle  against  sin,  as  years  ago  the 
same  gifts  were  offered  to  other  battles  nearer  home. 

Think  of  the  various  projects  in  the  Orient,  helped  on  and 
pushed  through  by  leaders  sent  from  these  states,  which  will 
have  an  age-long  effect  for  good  upon  many  millions  of  people. 
America  has  extended  this  hand  of  help  in  no  patronizing,  proud 
way,  thinking  of  her  superiority,  but  rather  in  the  simple  and 
humble  spirit  of  doing  a  service  to  fellow-men  in  need,  and  working 
well  the  task  given  her  in  the  world's  progress. 

If  God  has  done  for  America  what  he  has  not  done  for  any  other 
country,  then  surely  America  should  do  for  God  what  no  other 
country  has  done  for  him.  And  yet  there  is  little  room  for  self- 
congratulation.  The  story  goes,  in  India,  that  there  was  once  a 
Buddhist  dreamer.  It  happened  on  a  day  that  in  his  wanderings 
he  came  to  the  foot  "of  Mount  Everest,  that  sentinel  for  centuries 
keeping  watch  over  the  whole  Himalayan  range,  and  the  great 
plains  which  stretch  away  for  miles  to  the  south.  The  pigmy 
priest,  unawed,  stood  beside  this  giant  child  of  mother  earth;  then 
he  stretched  forth  his  arms  and  said,  "  I  will  embrace  you,"  and 
bringing  his  arms  together  he  found  he  had  caught  but  a  small 
shrub;  the  mountain  was  untouched.  I  think  we  are  a  little 
ahead  of  that  priest,  but  there's  still  untold  work  for  the  church 
to  do  before  the  travail  of  the  Master's  soul  shall  cease,  and  he 
shall  see  the  world  redeemed. 

Social  Life  of  India. 

Take,  if  you  will,  the  one  empire  of  India.  Its  Mohammedan 
population  outnumbers  the  Mohammedans  in  all  the  world  besides. 
There  are  living  there  together,  within  two  thirds  of  the  area  of  the 


298  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

United  States,  more  separate  races  than  you  can  count  on  the 
continent  of  Europe.  It  is  a  land  of  many  marvels  and  mysteries, 
of  colors,  creeds,  and  customs,  perhaps  of  some  failures  and  false- 
hoods, yet  it  is  a  great  country,  potent  with  possibilities.  Its 
natural  resources  are  such  that  with  a  little  coaxing  the  soil  has 
supplied  for  centuries  the  material  needs  of  the  millions  of  human- 
ity crowding  its  plains  and  huddling  about  its  hills.  The  pursuits 
of  agriculture,  of  weaving  the  coarser  cloths  for  local  markets;  the 
hand  manufactures  of  all  kinds  of  metal  ware;  the  numberless 
trades  and  crafts  seen  in  Oriental  lands;  the  special  wood  and 
brass  work;  the  temple  architecture;  the  palaces  of  the  princes;  the 
characteristic  dress  of  the  numerous  castes  and  the  various  nation- 
alities; the  mysterious,  meditative,  enchanting,  and  romantic  life 
of  the  Hindus,  —  all  together  suggest  occupations  and  thoughts, 
although  they  are  primitive  in  point  of  progress,  and  an  interesting 
life,  although  it  may  often  impress  one  as  listlessly  lived,  com- 
pared to  the  bang  and  the  whirl  of  the  Western  world.  One  of 
the  very  points  of  strength  in  that  empire  is  the  diversity  of 
people,  now  brought  together  practically  under  one  government, 
and  being  put  into  mutual  communication  by  the  use  of  the  one 
English  language,  which  is  prying  its  way  among  the  dialects  of 
India. 

It  is  sad  to  see  society  split  up  into  small  caste  circles.  A  rigid, 
frigid  system  it  is,  which  compels  the  son  always  to  follow  the 
father's  trade,  and  weds  the  daughter  always  to  a  son  of  the  same 
caste.  I  really  believe  the  average  Hindu  had  rather  neglect  the 
worship  of  his  gods  than  break  caste  by  certain  easy  associations 
with  a  lower  caste  man.  How  did  all  this  originate?  Who 
knows?  The  priest,  the  tillers  of  the  soil,  the  tradesmen,  the 
craftsmen,  the  soldiers,  the  servants,  finally,  became  fixed  in  their 
occupations,  till  the  observance  of  these  distinctions  became  a 
religious  duty,  unyielding,  intolerable.  No  one  in  India  can  say 
how  many  different  castes  there  are.  If  there  is  weakness  in  dis- 
union, a  diversity  of  elements  when  finally  united  makes  a  bond 
all  the  stronger,  and  such  does  the  diversity  of  human  life  in  that 
land  promise  some  day  to  be.     Wait  till  India  becomes  a  nation. 

In  all  the  greatness  that  we  Westerners  have  obtained  in  material 
things,  and  things  unseen  let  us  not  forget  that  language,  litera- 
ture, the  arts,  the  laws,  the  industries  and  religions  of  the  world 
started  among  the  Eastern  races;  that  out  of  the  soil  of  the  Orient 
in  the  fullness  of  time  burst,  budded,  and  blossomed  the  plant, 


India's  millions  for  christ.  299 

the  tree,  we  call  Christianity,  now  in  its  turn  sheltering  and 
nourishing  the  good  and  Godlike  things  it  sees  everywhere. 
This  is  the  life  and  these  are  the  millions  we  want  to  claim  as  a 
tribute  to  the  Master  of  men. 

Religious  Life  of  India. 

Look  at  their  religious  life.  India  is  a  living  parliament  of 
religions.  The  six  ancient  faiths  of  the  Eastern  world  are  accu- 
mulated there.  In  the  stored-up  religious  thoughts  of  the  Hindus 
is  enough  lore  to  last  the  student  of  literature,  mythology,  philo- 
sophy, and  religion  his  life  many  times  over.  The  tendencies  and 
intentions  of  modern  research  among  our  scholars  are  an  acknowl- 
edgment that  some  great  thinking  has  been  done  among  these 
people.  Among  them,  good  people  have  lived  their  lives  and  left 
the  fruits  thereof.  Among  them,  great  teachers  have  taught, 
with  whole  races  and  continents  as  pupils.  Some  of  these  lives 
and  thoughts  have  later  become  the  nucleus  of  a  whole  system  of 
religion,  which  stands  to  this  day,  almost  resistless  before  the 
advance  of  the  best  that  the  twentieth  century  Christian  world  has 
to  offer. 

The  people  of  India  have,  in  a  very  marked  degree,  the  principle 
of  religious  aspiration.  They  are  trying  in  a  thousand  ways  to 
satisfy  their  hunger  and  thirst  after  God,  nor  do  all  of  them  die 
altogether  unsatisfied.  All  the  world's  religious  books  were 
written  under  Eastern  skies.  The  Hebrew  scriptures  are  aglow 
with  the  gold  of  the  East,  rich,  sweet,  and  simple,  but  Christianity 
has  no  corner  on  God's  Spirit.  There  are  many  heathen  things 
done  in  Christian  countries,  and  many  Christian  things  done  in 
heathen  countries.  It  is  always  through  the  promptings  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  that  religious  for.ce  accumulates  and  then  finds 
expression  in  religious  activities.  All  religious  instinct  and  aspi- 
ration and  activity  are  man's,  through  no  evil  spirit's  favor,  but 
are  the  things  in  him  which  make  him  most  like  his  Maker. 

In  India,  religion  is  on  the  ground  before  the  child  is  born,  and 
still  lingers  after  the  body  of  the  aged  is  burned  or  buried,  in 
ancestral  worship  or  feasts.  The  people  of  India,  of  whatever 
creed,  are  always  ready  to  talk  with  you  on  religious  subjects. 
All  conceivable  relations  into  which  a  man  might  enter  are  closely 
allied  with  some  religious  rites.  Building  a  house,  digging  a 
well,  preparing  for  marriage,  casting  up  accounts,  beginning  his 
spring  plowing,  sowing  his  seed,  gathering  the  harvest,  and  all 


300  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

that  you  can  conceive  of  his  doing,  he  does  with  some  religious 
ceremony.  I  knew  a  well-to-do  Parsee  merchant  in  our  town,  for 
years  the  faithful  vice-president  of  the  city  municipality,  who 
used  to  spend  the  first  two  or  three  hours  of  each  morning  in 
prayer  and  meditation,  while  not  infrequently  many  impatient 
customers,  among  them  some  of  us  missionaries,  were  waiting  in 
his  store.  A  Mohammedan,  in  business  in  a  crowded  thorough- 
fare of  the  same  city,  told  me  more  than  once  that  the  one  aim  he 
had  in  view  was  to  accumulate  enough  wealth  to  enable  him 
finally  to  visit  Mecca  once  and  satisfy  his  soul.  He  left  for  Mecca 
a  few  months  before  I  came  to  America,  in  March,  1905.  In  the 
early  morning  in  the  same  city  one  may  see  large  numbers  of 
Brahmans  in  full  morning  dress,  not  unlike  the  Western  evening 
dress  minus  the  entangling  trains,  repairing  to  any  of  the  numerous 
temples  for  morning  worship,  while  lines  of  their  ladies,  at  certain 
times  of  the  year,  walk  daily  some  miles  to  the  special  shrines  of 
their  chosen  deities.  Their  zeal  in  expressing  their  devotion  to 
their  gods  goes  to  an  extreme  of  self-abnegation  and  self-denial 
unheard  of  among  the  most  zealous  of  Western  Christians.  What 
rich  soil  is  all  this  religious  life  in  which  to  sow  the  seed  of  the 
kingdom  of  God! 

Among  the  one  third  of  the  human  race  who  are  the  followers  of 
Buddha,  may  be  counted  India's  contributions.  That  prophet 
had  a  great  soul.  Like  Christ,  he  thought  out  the  problems  of 
life  in  the  mountains  alone;  like  him,  he  left  no  writings  in  prose 
or  poetry.  He  lived,  he  thought,  he  died.  The  system  which 
bears  his  name  is  not  all  contradictions  and  falsehoods,  but  it 
does  lack  the  dynamic  force  of  an  ever-present  and  all-powerful 
personality.  Moral  codes,  good  principles,  philosophic  abstractions, 
do  not  save  a  man  from  his  daily  temptations  and  habits.  The 
most  effective  force  at  work  in  the  universe  is  intelligence  or 
personality.  Put  this,  "  I  am  with  you  always,"  into  the  codes 
and  principles  of  Buddhism  and  see  the  results. 

Mohammedanism. 

We  have  heard  of  Mohammedanism.  It  is  a  force  upon  which 
India  and  many  lands  besides  have  had  to  count  for  centuries. 
Its  adherents  are  distributed  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  Mo- 
hammed fought  against  idolatry.  He  taught  submission  to  the 
one  personal  God;  he  acknowledged  Jesus  as  the  Messiah,  though 
not  as  divine.     The  Koran  he  believed  to  be  the  last  stage  of 


India's  millions  for  christ.  301 

God's  revelations  to  man.  He  has  ninety-nine  names  for  God. 
Shall  we  go  to  his  followers  with  the  one  hundredth  and  crowning 
one  of  Father?  Woman  is  man's  slave.  Crime  or  immorality 
will  not  excommunicate  a  Mohammedan.  Church  and  state  are 
one.  Sensuality  and  lust  run  in  the  Tartar  blood.  Its  fatalism  is 
fatal  to  its  own  healthy  development.  Bring  into  this  system 
the  purity,  the  truth,  the  service,  the  love  of  the  Christian  faith, 
imbue  it  with  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  and  you  have  strong 
devotion  and  loyalty  and  zeal,  which  have  made  Mohammedan 
converts  in  India  endure  persecution,  fight  the  good  fight,  and  pay 
any  price  to  keep  the  new  found  faith  in  the  Saviour,  Jesus. 

The  followers  of  Zoroaster,  the  Parsees  from  Persia,  have  been 
in  India  for  five  hundred  years.  Zoroaster  was  one  of  the  great 
teachers  of  the  East.  An  echo  of  his  own  moral  struggles  is  heard 
in  his  teachings  of  dualism.  The  Parsee  adores  the  sun,  the 
source  of  so  much  blessing,  giving  life  and  light  and  having  such 
cleansing  power,  being,  too,  the  largest  body  symbolic  of  the 
source  of  all  such  power.  The  Parsees  are  devout.  They  do  not 
proselyte.  Their  temples  are  exclusive.  Sins  of  lust  and  passion 
are  regrettably  noticeable  among  them.  Charities  abound,  but 
are  prompted  by  mixed  motives.  This  religion  can  never  recover 
its  former  power.  It  suffered  the  first  blow  in  the  seventh  cen- 
tury when  the  Mohammedans  invaded  Persia.  This  system,  too, 
is  giving  away  under  the  calm  conquest  of  Christianity. 

Hinduism. 

Then  there  is  Hinduism,  ancient  and  modern,  the  strongest, 
the  oldest,  religion  in  India.  There  is  a  certain  prestige  about  old 
age.  Hinduism  has  gained  no  small  share  of  its  power  by  its 
openness,  in  a  way,  towards  other  faiths.  Probably  for  this 
reason,  a  small  score  of  Hindus  could  not  be  found  in  all  Hindustan 
who  could  define  Hinduism.  This  ancient,  elaborate  philosophy 
is  professed  by  one  hundred  and  ninety  millions.  Nature  wor- 
ship is  its  backbone,  mystery  its  watchword.  All  unusual  pheno- 
mena are  connected  with  deity.  The  Vedas  are  selections  made 
from  the  ancient  scriptures,  and  are  not  the  daily  thought  of  those 
former  pastoral  people.  Hinduism,  ancient  and  modern,  is  a 
colossal  conglomerate  mass  of  philosophies  and  systems  hope- 
lessly interborrowed.  What  of  truth  there  is  in  it  is  from  God. 
Its  founder  and  its  writings  have  gripped  the  people  as  few  other 
religious  systems  have  ever  done.     It  is  our  privilege  to  send  the 


302  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

larger  life,  the  greater  truth,  the  fuller  knowledge  of  God  the 
Father,  and  of  Jesus,  in  daily  spiritual  presence,  as  the  helping 
Brother  of  man  to  these  millions  in  India. 

The  religious  instinct,  the  devotion,  and  abundant  religious 
activities  are  already  the  Orient  people's  possession.  Add  to 
these  the  power  of  truth,  righteousness,  and  love,  personified  in 
the  God-man,  and  the  church  of  the  East  will  be  the  greatest 
church  we  know.  I  will  go  further  than  that,  and  say  that  God's 
complete  orb  of  truth  is  so  great,  so  much  greater  than  any  of  us 
think,  that  we  of  Christendom  will  never  know  it  all,  till  men 
everywhere,  made  in  God's  image  and  feeling  after  him,  have 
experienced  the  Father's  saving  presence  in  Jesus  the  Saviour, 
and  have  brought  in  their  contributions  to  the  interpretation  and 
the  understanding  of  it  all.  We  are  people  of  one  world.  None 
of  us  liveth  unto  himself,  and  no  one  part  of  the  human  family 
can  do  the  thinking  for  the  rest. 

From  the  multitudes  and  varieties  of  peoples,  the  religious 
atmosphere,  the  contributions  of  many  good  thinkers,  the  mis- 
takes and  successes  of  the  Western  church,  the  ripest  results  of 
our  best  scholarship  in  science,  in  speculation,  and  religion  brought 
within  reach,  India's  millions  will  one  day  rise  to  the  position  of 
a  great  church  power  and  take  her  full  share  in  the  work  of  the 
world's  redemption.  The  Father  in  heaven  is  interested  in  bring- 
ing back  to  his  home  the  last  lost  prodigal,  wherever  he  may  be. 
The  diamond,  trampled  in  the  mire  under  the  swine's  feet,  still  has, 
in  the  hands  of  the  specialist,  the  qualities  of  the  brilliant,  lustrous, 
genuine  gem.  No  soul  from  the  Creator's  hand  has  gone  forth  to 
any  existence  that  has  not  still  following  it  the  Father's  active 
interest  to  help  it  into  higher  realms  of  closer  companionship  with 
himself.  Is  the  gospel  winning  its  way  into  the  hearts  of  the 
Hindus?  Who  said,  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  unto 
me "  ?  Then  be  assured  that  the  truth  is  conquering  and  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  is  coming  to  the  realms  of  India's  princes. 

Controlling  Ideas. 

The  modern  messenger  of  the  Church  of  Christ  goes  to  the  non- 
Christian  peoples  with  these  three  ideas  controlling  him  and  his 
methods  of  work.  In  the  first  place,  he  goes  conscious  of  the  fact 
that  centuries  before  the  first  preacher  ever  landed  among  them 
from  the  West,  God  was  busy  with  those  people,  revealing  himself 
to  them  according  to  their  capacity  to  receive.     The  preacher, 


India's  bullions  tor  christ.  303 

therefore,  goes  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  desiring  and  working,  not  to 
destroy  the  law  and  the  prophets,  which  already  exist  among  them, 
the  ideals  they  may  already  have,  but  trying  to  fill  in  where  they 
need  more  light  and  more  effectual  help  from  sin.  The  iconoclast 
who  says,  "  Away  with  all  this  you  have  here,  it  is  all  falsehood 
and  superstition  and  empty  liturgies,  dishonoring  God  and  a 
curse  to  men.  I  have  what  you  want,  this  is  the  truth.  Take 
this,"  will  find  as  little  response, in  India,  as  he  will  anywhere  in 
God's  world.  Woe  to  him  who  will  destroy  another  man's  ideal. 
Let  him  the  rather  build  upon  the  good  to  be  found  and  bring  it 
to  the  best  development,  with  the  larger  help  offered  through  the 
daily  companionship  of  the  Man  of  Galilee. 

In  the  second  place,  the  missionary  is  coming  to  interpret  in  a 
larger  way  the  words  of  Jesus:  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  whole  creation."  He  believes  that 
means  more  than  geographical  extension;  it  means  go  with  the 
gospel  and  permeate  all  departments  of  men's  lives.  There 
is  no  secular  and  religious  distinction  to  the  Christian;  he  does 
all  things  for  the  love  of  God  and  for  the  love  of  man.  Man  must 
be.  lifted  symmetrically.  His  economic  condition;  the  indigenous 
pursuits  of  his  country;  any  special  natural  resources  in  his  land; 
his  social  life,  in  the  home  and  among  outer  circles;  his  educa- 
tional needs;  proper  sanitary  needs  for  his  dwellings  and  town; 
effective  medical  care  for  his  body,  and  his  religious  needs,  —  all 
sides  of  the  man's  life  need  the  gospel's  help.  Giving  him  the 
right  kind  of  help  along  all  these  lines  is  giving  the  whole  gospel 
to  help  the  whole  man.  This  your  missionaries  are  trying  to  do 
just  as  fast  as  you  back  them  up  with  something  to  invest  in  such 
enterprises.  You  know  it  costs  to  redeem  from  destruction.  It 
costs  some  people  only  their  dollars,  but  it  is  costing  others  their 
lives.  I  say  it  humbly,  I  believe  they  are  giving  their  lives  for 
the  cause  more  freely  than  many  of  us  are  giving  of  our  dollars. 

In  the  third  place,  the  missionary  goes  desiring  most  to  take  to 
the  non-Christian  people  the  essential  message  of  Christianity. 
Not  in  the  boastful  spirit,  which  bombards  the  heathen  in  his 
blindness  with  a  storm  like  this:  "  Here,  away  with  all  this,  I 
have  what  you  need.  Take  the  Lord  Jesus  in  your  heart,  and  put- 
all  this  elaborate  church  paraphernalia,  which  we  have  prepared 
in  the  West  under  certain  peculiar  needs  and  conditions,  and  put 
them  on  your  back,  brother,  and  God  bless  you."  Why,  friends, 
the  thoughts  and  deeds  of  the  Orientalist  are  all  alive  with  religion. 


304  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

Let's  give  him  the  Christian's  best  help,  crystallized  in  the  daily 
presence  of  Christ.  Let's  say  to  him,  "  My  brother  man,  you  and 
I  can  walk  in  daily  touch  with  God  every  day;  Jesus  teaches  us 
how  to  do  it;  he  knows  what  help  man  needs.  By  his  daily  com- 
panionship he  can  help  men  to  know  God  better  and  to  walk 
nearer  to  him.  Shall  I  tell  you  about  Jesus?  "  What  else  besides 
this  do  you  wish  the  Orientalist  to  take  from  the  message  Chris- 
tianity has  for  the  world?  Multiplied  organization  does  not  run 
in  the  Hindu's  life.  India  is  not  yet  a  nation.  But  the  people 
possess  a  genius  for  religion.  They  have  their  own  countless  ways 
of  expressing  their  inner  faith,  imperfect,  distorted  often,  to  be 
sure,  but  I  believe  the  Hindus  need  far  less  than  we  think  the 
externalities  of  Western  Christianity. 

The  world's  greatest  religious  teachers,  the  founders  of  the 
faiths  which  have  stood  and  withstood  for  centuries,  were  all 
from  the  Eastern  world.  Surcharge  this  religious  atmosphere 
with  the  hitherto  unknown  companionship  with  God  through 
Jesus,  and  the  East  will  live  and  move.  It  will  live  for  God  and 
move  with  service  for  men.  Heaven  save  the  Orient  from  the 
havoc  of  isms.  Heaven  hold  the  world's  people  together,  with 
the  bonds  of  devotion  to  the  one  Master. 

Humbly,  prayerfully  working  on,  with  these  three  principles  to 
guide  his  policy,  has  the  gospel  accomplished  anything  through 
the  missionary  in  that  land  of  woes  and  wonders?  Avoiding 
general  statistics,  may  I  selfishly  cite  some  concrete  results  of  the 
power  of  the  gospel  in  individual  lives,  and  in  the  transformation 
of  communities,  and  in  producing  some  results  which  are  even 
national  in  their  reach? 

Field  of  the  Marathi  Mission. 

The  city  of  Sholapur  is  one  of  the  eight  principal  centers  in  the 
Marathi  Mission.  Its  ancient  fort  suggests  history  and  romance. 
Its  artificial  bathing  tank,  and  its  predominating  Brahman  popu- 
lation suggest  a  stronghold  of  Hinduism.  Like  a  little  child,  which 
Christ  once  set  in  the  midst  to  teach  his  truths,  there  stands 
in  the  very  heart  of  that  city  a  modest  little  church.  Crowded  at 
its  services,  paying  its  own  expenses,  the  church  is  led  in  its  work 
by  a  native  pastor  of  rare  enthusiasm  and  consecration.  He  is 
easily  one  of  the  leading  preachers  and  organizers  among  all  the 
honored  pastors  in  the  mission.  His  father  belonged  to  the 
classes  who,  like  his  Saviour,  are  the  despised  and  rejected  of  men, 


India's  millions  for  christ.  305 

acquainted  with  sorrows  and  enduring  abuse.  Jesus  came  into 
that  life,  and  see  the  work  the  son  is  doing  for  the  lost  in  the  land. 

Outside  of  the  city  walls  of  Sholapur,  literally  without  the  camp, 
is  a  church  of  leper  converts.  These  helpless  ones  of  God's  chil- 
dren, some  of  them  with  bodies  being  slowly  dismembered  by  the 
fatal  malady  which  eats  away  flesh  and  bone,  are  gathered  there 
into  a  comfortable  home,  cared  for,  preached  to,  and  beloved  by 
a  high-caste  man,  now  a  Christian,  who  once  scoffed  at  Chris- 
tianity, who  later  suffered  all  manner  of  persecution  when  he 
confessed  Christianity,  and  who  is  now  showing  his  devotion  to 
the  cause  in  this  service  for  these  neglected  incurables.  It  is 
Jesus,  in  Sholapur,  who  has  touched  these  lepers  and  made  them 
whole  and  hearty  Christians.  Their  leader  is  an  able  physician, 
too.  To  his  other  good  works  he  has  added  a  large  home  for 
orphans.  No  one  can  compute  the  good  which  Dr.  Keskar  of 
that  city  is  doing.  Financially,  he  is  not  connected  with  any 
mission  board. 

The  traveling  Christian  Endeavor  secretary  for  Western  India 
is  a  young  man  of  ability  as  a  student  and  speaker,  and  is  thor- 
oughly imbued  with  the  Endeavor  spirit.  A  promising  pastorate 
was  sacrificed  for  his  present  work.  His  father  was  a  convert 
from  the  lower  castes.  The  son  was  first  an  enthusiastic  teacher 
in  the  mission  high  school  at  Ahmednagar,  where  very  few  of  the 
numerous  high-caste  pupils  or  associate  teachers  ever  thought  of 
his  father's  origin,  or  questioned  his  admittance  to  their  friendship. 
Later,  he  was  ordained  pastor  over  one  of  the  principal  churches 
in  the  mission,  and  finally  was  chosen  a  leader  at  large  among  the 
Christian  youths  of  all  that  section  of  Western  India. 

In  Ahmednagar,  there  lives  a  modest,  hard-working,  Christian 
lawyer.  His  father  was  a  persecuted  high-caste  convert.  En- 
dowed with  some  natural  gifts  as  scholar  and  thinker,  the  young 
convert  reached  the  useful  place  of  pastor  of  the  largest  church  in 
the  mission  in  the  same  city.  He  taught  in  the  theological  semi- 
nary. For  a  while  he  superintended  whole  mission  districts.  One 
son  entered  the  legal  profession.  His  home  is  the  friendly  gather- 
ing place  for  all  kinds  of  citizens.  The  educated  and  high  caste 
come  for  fraternal  calls  and  conversation,  and  the  low  castes  and 
no  castes  come  for  counsel  and  friendship.  He  preaches  regularly 
and  without  pay  in  the  second  church  in  the  city,  known  as  the 
"  Church  of  the  Lamb."  He  preaches  on  the  streets.  He  con- 
ducts attractive  native  concerts,  and  is  invited  by  churches  and 


306  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

associations  everywhere,  for  one  of  his  spicy  and  spiritually  helpful 
addresses.  For  years  this  lawyer  has  been  the  lay  moderator  of 
the  large  body  of  the  "  Union  of  Churches  "  in  our  mission.  At 
the  World's  Parliament  of  Religions,  in  Chicago,  in  1893,  Dr. 
Barrows  corresponded  with  this  Mr.  Modak  about  representing 
Indian  Christianity  at  that  gathering,  but  he  felt  he  had  work  of 
greater  importance  nearer  home.  In  his  practice  it  is  his  rule 
never  to  plead  the  case  of  a  Christian  against  a  Christian. 

In  the  same  city  a  wealthy  Parsee  became  a  Christian.  It  cost 
him  all  his  friends  and  possessions  to  take  the  stand.  The  day 
after  his  baptism  some  of  the  Parsee  community  offered  him 
twenty-five  thousand  dollars  if  he  would  recant.  After  prepar- 
ing himself,  he  took  priestly  orders  in  the  Church  of  England. 
Today  you  will  find  this  sturdy  veteran,  with  his  long  term  of 
untiring  service  behind  him,  during  which  his  wife  died,  retired 
to  a  small  hill  town,  living  with  his  three  daughters,  who  are  active 
in  any  good  cause  and  devoted  to  their  father.  Every  day  the 
old  man  walks  down  to  the  market  square  below  his  house  and 
talks  with  little  groups  of  shopkeepers  or  venders  of  fruit,  fodder, 
and  fuel,  who  welcome  the  friendly  face  among  them,  and  listen 
to  the  ripe  experiences  of  the  Christian  saint  and  of  Christ  his 
Saviour. 

A  Mohammedan  was  baptized  in  the  same  city,  and  later  became 
a  powerful  evangelist.  He  translated  portions  of  the  Koran.  He 
assisted  a  missionary  in  the  compilation  of  an  elementary  astron- 
omy and  anatomy  and  a  Bible  dictionary.  He  was  preparing  a 
commentary  on  the  Psalms  when  his  body,  worn  out  in  the 
Master's  service,  was  laid  away  to  rest.  His  spirit  serves  and 
praises  God  now  in  labors  more  abundant  in  the  spiritual  realms. 
Perhaps  he  still  works  for  India. 

I  did  not  mention  the  wives  of  these  men.  It  is  a  greater  work 
of  grace  that  they  all  were  fitted  to  occupy  the  places  they  did. 
They  stood  beside  their  husbands,  made  their  homes  the  centers 
of  the  parish,  visited  among  the  families  in  their  towns,  were 
active  in  all  forms  of  Christian  work  among  the  young  and  old, 
and  helped  to  bring  in  many  sheaves  into  the  Master's  garner. 

Attitude  of  the  Natives  of  India. 

Count  them,  over  a  million  Protestant  Christians  in  India,  prince 
and  plowman,  contractor  and  coolie,  scholar  and  soldier,  poet 
and  pupil,  leavening  the  whole  lump.    Six  and  ten  per  cent  of  some 


India's  millions  for  CHRIST.  307 

villages  in  India  are  given  in  government  censuses  as  Christian. 
Whole  classes  and  masses  of  the  people  are  sending  in  petitions  to 
the  government  and  the  missionary  bodies  for  more  instruction. 
They  ask  for  more  opportunities  for  their  children,  whom  they 
would  like  to  see  growing  up  as  useful  citizens  and  thrifty  house- 
holders. Last  year  four  hundred  and  seventy-nine  persons  united 
with  the  church  in  our  mission  alone,  a  good-sized  community  of 
itself.  The  problems  connected  with  these  growing  communities 
are  simply  overwhelming  the  mission.  Should  their  children  be 
educated,  should  we  teach  them  some  trade?  Most  of  them  are 
either  ostracized  or  barred  from  trades  by  the  prejudice  of  friends 
and  foes  alike.  Shall  they  receive  any  religious  instruction  to 
make  them  stable  and  useful  Christians,  or,  being  baptized,  shall 
they  be  abandoned?  We  feel  like  soldiers  sent  to  fight  your 
battles  and  told  to  supply  our  own  ammunition  after  we  have 
faced  the  enemy.  Some  of  these  representatives  are  simply 
dropping  where  they  stand;  the  pressure  abroad  and  the  neglect 
here  at  home  are  too  great.  I  wish  to  quote  from  letters  received 
lately  from  the  Marathi  Mission: 

"  The  thirteenth  annual  conference  of  foreign  mission  boards, 
in  which  your  and  our  representatives  had  a  part,  lately  passed 
and  published  the  following  resolution:  '  In  order  to  arouse  the 
churches  to  a  sense  of  their  privilege  and  responsibility,  and  in 
order  to  meet  but  inadequately  the  present  needs  in  the  mission 
fields  under  boards  represented  at  this  conference,  there  ought 
to  be  at  least  one  thousand  volunteers  ready  to  be  sent  out  each 
year  until  these  fields  are  occupied  in  force.  We  appeal  to  the 
students  present  in  this  quadrennial  Student  Volunteer  Con- 
vention that  they,  by  asking  to  be  sent  to  these  needy  waiting 
fields,  a  thousand  strong  each  year,  challenge  the  churches,  where 
final  responsibility  must  rest,  to  provide  the  necessary  funds.' " 
The  Marathi  Mission  voices  its  need,  its  most  imperative  need,  as 
follows:  "  As  to  our  urgent  need  of  missionaries,  we  would  repeat 
the  appeals  which  have  been  made  in  our  resolutions  of  former 
years,  and  in  the  mission  letter  of  May,  1905.  Again,  to  particu- 
larize a  few  of  our  most  urgent  immediate  needs,  we  would  specif}' 
for  Bombay  a  kindergartner  and  an  additional  missionary  family; 
for  Sirur  an  ordained  missionary  family;  for  Satara  an  additional 
family  and  one  or  two  ladies;  for  Wai  a  married  medical  mission- 
ary; for  Rahuri  an  additional  family;  for  Ahmednagar  an  expert 
in  modern  pedagogy  —  ordained  if  possible  —  to  be  at  the  head 


308  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

of  a  reorganized  normal  school  for  training  teachers  of  both  sexes, 
and  two  ladies  (trained)  qualified  for  positions  in  the  large  girls' 
school  and  the  Bible  women's  training  school.  This  is  the  mini- 
mum which  we  can  indicate  for  partially  meeting  our  present 
urgent  needs.  For  such  a  speedy  reenforcement  we  make  a  most 
earnest  appeal." 

We  would  like  to  reecho  that  appeal  to  the  Congregational 
churches  of  America,  and  to  the  young  Christians  of  those  churches. 
Every  member  of  this  mission  is  overworked.  When  the  Student 
Volunteer  Movement  is  inspiring  many  thousands  of  the  finest 
young  men  and  women  to  devote  themselves  to  foreign  missionary 
service,  and  when  God  is  committing  great  wealth  to  the  Congre- 
gational churches,  should  not  these  churches  deem  the  Marathi 
Mission  remiss  in  duty  if  we  did  not  appeal  for  an  early  reenforce- 
ment of  at  least  ten  additional  workers  to  this  fruitful  and  over- 
worked mission?  Most  earnestly  we  request  you  to  give  and  to 
support  this  appeal  to  the  Congregational  churches  and  young 
people  of  America. 

To  this  centennial  meeting  of  the  Board  are  sent  the  following 
special  messages  from  the  Marathi  Mission,  prepared  about  a  month 
ago  at  my  request.  I  will  read  them  from  the  original  documents 
signed  by  the  senders.  The  missionaries  say,  "  We  can  and  we 
will,  if  you  will  what  you.  can,  to  make  India  Christ's,"  and  the 
signatures  follow.  The  Christian  people  from  all  that  region 
send  this  message  in  their  own  tongue,  attaching  this  translation: 
"  Because  they  willed  what  they  could,  we  are  today  Christ's  men. 
By  God's  help  we  will  what  we  can  to  make  our  Hindu  land 
Christ's  land." 

Our  Opportunity  and  Duty. 

Friends  of  the  Board,  shall  we  at  this  end  stand  by  these  our 
representatives  and  these  our  brethren  in  Christ  across  the  seas? 
Samuel  Mills  uttered  his  words  in  America,  not  in  India,  but  I 
verily  believe  the  spirit  of  the  utterance  is  manifest  more  in  the 
working  force  on  the  foreign  field  at  the  end  of  the  century  than 
it  is  here  at  home. 

There  are  many  results  the  gospel  has  wrought  which  are 
national  in  their  influence  in  India.  The  Christian  Sunday  is 
surely  finding  a  place  in  the  life  of  India.  The  days  observed  by 
the  Church,  such  as  Christmas,  Easter,  etc.,  are  attracting  atten- 
tion.    Movements  like  the  Somaj  are  started  and  maintained  by 


INDIA'S    MILLIONS   FOR   CHRIST.  309 

essentially  the  Christian  spirit.  National  gatherings  of  all  kinds, 
and  all  attempts  to  nurture  the  patriotic  spirit,  are  through  the 
influences  of  Christian  education.  The  desire  to  travel  abroad; 
to  pursue  studies  in  Western  lands;  the  visits  of  leading  men  to 
our  countries,  merchants  and  kings  and  students  coming  to 
America  to  study  the  economic,  the  social,  and  educational  condi- 
tions and  institutions;  the  movement  among  the  Christians  to 
unite  for  more  effectual  work;  the  Swadeshi  movement  over  larger 
parts  of  India,  calling  attention  to  things  Indian  and  pressing  upon 
all  the  claims  of  the  country  itself;  and,  finally,  the  actual  organi- 
zation of  a  national  Indian  Christian  association  as  a  home  mis- 
sionary organization  —  all  these  are  fruits  borne  by  Christianity. 
The  problem  of  India's  millions  being  won  to  God's  kingdom 
is  not  a  foreign  problem.  America  is  the  battle  ground  of  foreign 
missions.  There  are  thousands  of  men  and  millions  of  money  in 
this  country  which  should  be  available  to  put  into  this  world- 
project.  If  the  world  is  to  be  made  better  we  must  work  on  it 
more  evenly  at  all  points  of  the  compass.  We  of  the  West  can- 
not rise  much  higher  unless  we  take  the  rest  of  the  world  with  us. 
The  world's  needs,  our  unparalleled  prosperity,  our  duty  as 
stewards  of  God's  gifts,  the  privilege  of  saving  our  fellow-men,  the 
call  and  command  of  Christ  to  go  forth,  the  achievements  of  the 
church,  already  a  part  of  history,  and  the  sure  promise  in  all 
things,  seen  and  unseen,  that  truth,  righteousness,  love,  God,  will 
win  the  world,  are  all  together  urging  us  to  help  to  hasten  the 
glad  day,. —  to  live,  to  give,  like  Christ,  for  the  whole  world. 


A  Message 

To  the  American  Board,  at  its  meeting  celebrating  the  Haystack 
Centennial,  from  their  missionaries  of  its  oldest  mission,  the 
Marathi  Mission  in  India: 

"  We  can  and  we  will,  if  you  will  what  you  can  to  make  India 
Christ's." 

Robert  A.  Hume.  H.  J.  Bruce. 

Katie  F.  Hume.  H.  P.  Bruce. 

James  Smith.  Louise  H.  R.  Grieve. 

Maud  Smith.  Theodore  Storrs  Lee. 

Emily  R.  Bissell.  Hannah  Hume  Lee. 

Belle  Nugent.  Minnie  Chester  Sibley. 

Lester  H.  Beals.  Jean  P.  Gordon. 

Rose  F.  Beals.  L.  S.  Gates. 


310 


THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 


D.  C.  Churchill. 
Alice  H.  Churchill. 
Ruth  P.  Hume. 
Edith  Gates. 
Eleanor  Stephenson. 
W.  O.  Ballantine. 
Josephine  L.  Ballantine. 
Edward  Fairbank. 
Mary  C.  Fairbank. 
Alden  H.  Clark. 
Mary  W.  Clark. 


Frances  Hazen  Gates. 
William  Hazen. 
Florence  Hartt  Hazen. 
Emily  W.  Harding. 
Mary  C.  Winsor. 
Mary  E.  Moulton. 
Madoline  Campbell. 
Camilla  Clarke  Abbott. 
J.  E.  Abbott. 
Nellie  P.  Peacock. 
Anna  L.  Millard. 


B.    K.    HUNSBERGER. 


A  Message 

To  the  American  Board  from  Indian  Christians  of  the  Marathi 
Mission : 

"  Because  they  [i.  e.,  Mills  and  his  associates]  willed  what  they 
could,  we  are  Christ's  men.  By  God's  help  we  will  what  we  can 
to  make  our  Hindu-land  Christ's  land." 

Ahmednagar,  August  30,  1906. 
S.  R.  Modak.  B.  N.  Adhav. 

S.  S.  Salve.  S.  P.  Gaikwad. 


N. 

V. 

TlLOK. 

J.  S.  Rahatoe. 

B. 

B. 

CHAKR ANARAYAN . 

S.  V.  Karmarker. 

B. 

P. 

Umap. 

T.    BUELL. 

B. 

C. 

Ujgare. 

P.    S.    KUKDE. 

V. 

L. 

Bhaubal. 

VlTHOLROW   MAKAS 

Wai,  September  5,  1906. 
Kaliyan  Hariba  Gaikwa.  Dhanaji  Sonaji  Chandkar. 

Sowliaram  Arguna  Bhalekar.  Shankar  Balwant  Kxtlkarin. 

Baporji  Narayan  Dete.  Tatyubu  Shivaram  Bhosle. 

Vittoo  Sakhoraniji  Ohol.  Prabhakar  Balaji  Keskar. 

Nana  Ganoba  Gaikwad. 

Sirur  (Poona),  September  8,  1906! 
Sadoba  Makaji  Jadhar.  M.  K.  Amolik. 

Bombay, 
vlnayak  kashinath  koshe. 


CLOSING  SERVICE, 

Friday  Morning,  October   1 2. 


President  Mark  Hopkins  wrote  of  the  five  men  of  the  hay- 
stack: "  They  had  enlarged  views  of  the  capabilities  of  the  gospel, 
of  its  moral  adaptations  as  a  universal  remedy  for  the  woes  and 
guilt  of  man." 

"  Go  ye  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations.  .  .  .  and,  lo,  I  am 
with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 


BAPTISM  FOR  SERVICE. 

Saviour,  who  thy  life  didst  give, 

That  our  souls  might  ransomed  be, 
Rest  we  not  till  all  the  world 

Hears  that  love,  and  turns  to  thee. 

Help  us  that  we  falter  not, 

Though  the  fields  are  white  and  wide, 

And  the  reapers,  sorely  pressed, 
Call  for  aid  on  every  side. 

Guide  us,  that  with  swifter  feet 

We  may  speed  us  on  our  way, 
Leading  darkened  nations  forth 

Into  thine  eternal  day. 

Sweet  the  service,  blest  the  toil; 

Thine  alone  the  glory  be; 
Oh,  baptize  our  souls  anew; 

Consecrate  us  all  to  thee. 

—  Amelia  D.  Lockwood. 

[Taken  from  the  "Pilgrim  Hymnal"  by  permission  of  the  Congregational  Sunday 
School  and  Publishing  Society.] 


THE  CLOSING  SERVICE.  313 


THE  CLOSING  SERVICE,  HELD  IN  NORTH  ADAMS 
METHODIST  CHURCH,  OCTOBER  12,   1906. 

The  final  session  opened  with  a  devotional  service,  which 
was  led  by  Rev.  Frank  N.  White,  of  Chicago.  President  Capen 
took  the  chair  at  9.30.  After  the  singing  of  a  hymn,  the  busi- 
ness committee  reported  the  following  draft  of  a  letter  to  Hon. 
Elihu  Root,  Secretary  of  State: 

"Concerning  the  barbarities  and  slavery  inflicted  upon  African  natives  by 
the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo,  it  is  currently  reported  that  the  British 
Foreign  Secretary  stated  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  July  5,  last,  that  if 
other  powers  would  join  Great  Britain  in  insisting  upon  reforms  in  that  state, 
the  government  would  welcome  them.  In  view  of  this  statement,  the  Ameri- 
can Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions,  celebrating  its  Haystack 
Centennial  at  North  Adams  and  Williamstown,  Mass.,  October  9  to  12  inst., 
expresses  its  earnest  desire  that  this  suggestion  from  England  be  met,  and 
that  the  United  States,  through  its  representatives  at  the  next  International 
Peace  Convention  at  The  Hague,  may,  so  far  as  is  consistent,  exert  its  moral 
influence  toward  the  prompt  and  effective  correction  of  existing  abuses,  and 
the  abolition  of  these  abundant  and  seemingly  well-attested  atrocities." 

This  was  approved  and  ordered  sent  to  Secretary  Root.  The 
Board  passed  the  following  resolutions: 

"  Resolved,  That  a  committee  be  appointed  to  consider  and  report  at  the  next 
amiual  meeting  of  the  Board  upon  the  wisdom  and  feasibility  of  the  erection 
at  Williamstown,  Mass.,  of  an  appropriate  memorial  commemorative  of  this 
centennial  meeting,  together  with  approximate  expense  of  such  memorial  and 
suggestions  as  to  methods  of  providing  for  the  same." 

The  president  appointed  as  committee:  President  Henry 
Hopkins,  President  W.  J.  Tucker,  A.  W.  Benedict,  Frank  A.  Day, 
0.  H.  Ingram,  Rev.  E.  M.  Williams,  Rev.  S.  Parkes  Cadman. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Board  would  put  on  record  its  appreciation  of  the  many 
years  of  devoted  service  rendered  by  the  Rev.  Judson  Smith,  D.D.,  as  Corre- 
sponding Foreign  Secretary,  and  its  profound  sense  of  loss  in  his  death." 

After  the  resolution  in  memory  of  Secretary  Smith,  Rev. 
Edward  D.  Eaton,  D.D.,  formerly  president  of  Beloit  College,  and 
now  pastor  of  the  North  Church,  St.  Johnsbury,  Vt.,  made  a  brief 
memorial  address  which  is  included  in  this  volume. 

After  that,  addresses  were  made  by  the  following  missionaries: 
Rev.  F.  B.  Bridgman,  of  the  South  African  Mission:    Dr.  H.  N. 


314  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

Kinnear,  of  Foochow;  Rev.  E.  G.  Tewksbury,  of  North  China; 
Rev.  Stephen  vR.  Trowbridge,  under  appointment  for  Central 
Turkey;  Mrs.  Trowbridge;  Rev.  John  S.  Chandler,  of  Madura; 
Dr.  Edwin  St.  John  Ward,  under  commission  for  Eastern  Turkey; 
Miss  Charlotte  Allen,  also  under  commission  to  the  same  mission; 
Rev.  Robert  E.  Hume  and  Miss  Laura  A.  Caswell  now  under 
commission  for  the  Marathi  Mission;  Rev.  A.  W.  Staub,  under 
commission  of  the  Board,  not  designated;  Rev.  Mr.  Marcusson, 
of  Chicago,  formerly  commissioned  by  the  Board,  now  conducting 
a  mission  for  Jews  in  Chicago. 

Five  of  these  addresses  (all  that  were  obtainable)  are  included 
in  this  volume,  with  one  by  the  Rev.  James  H.  Roberts,  prepared 
for  this  occasion,  but  not  delivered,  on  account  of  lack  of  time. 

The  Business  Committee  then  reported,  through  Rev.  Edward 
L.  Smith,  resolutions  of  gratitude,  which  were  adopted,  to  those 
whose  cooperation  had  made  the  meetings  so  successful,  and 
also  addressed,  in  the  following  paragraphs,  to  the  agents  and 
constituency  of  the  Board. 

"The  thanks  of  the  Board  are  extended  to  its  missionaries  and  officials,  to 
pastors  and  laymen,  who  have  given  special  and  tireless  effort  in  the  raising 
of  the  million-dollar  fund,  and  to  the  great  body  of  givers,  small  and  large, 
who  have  made  that  million  dollars  possible.  To  Rev.  Arthur  H.  Smith,  D.D., 
who  left  his  exacting  and  important  labors  in  China  to  participate  in  this 
campaign,  and  to  Mrs.  Smith,  the  loving  sympathy  of  the  Board  is  extended 
in  the  sad  loss  of  their  son  and  only  child. 

"  With  great  satisfaction  the  Board  would  call  the  attention  of  the  churches 
to  the  action  of  the  Prudential  Committee  in  arranging  for  the  visitation  of 
the  fields  during  the  coming  year  by  its  chairman,  the  Foreign  Corresponding 
Secretary,  two  of  the  Field  Secretaries,  and  certain  other  corporate  members, 
to  the  end  that  those  who  carry  on  the  business  of  the  Board  at  home  may 
have  all  possible  first-hand  information  regarding  the  condition,  needs,  and 
prospects  of  its  work  abroad. 

"The  Board  would  urge  upon  the  Congregational  churches  of  the  country, 
whose  servant  it  is,  that  the  completion  of  the  million-dollar  fund  be  regarded 
as  in  no  way  warranting  a  relaxing  of  effort,  but  rather  as  removing  an  obstacle 
to  a  far  more  triumphant  advance.  Profoundly  grateful  to  God  for  the  answer 
to  the  prayers  of  the  Haystack  Meeting  and  the  prayers  of  all  good  friends  of 
missions,  which  answer  we  see  in  part  in  the  ninety-seven  jrears  of  life  and 
work  of  this  Board,  we  appeal  to  the  churches  that  they  will  never  do  less  for 
the  cause  than  they  have  done  during  the  past  year,  that  they  will  each  one 
make  some  offering  to  the  Board's  work,  and  so  become  coworkers  with 
Jesus  Christ  in  the  conquest  of  the  world.  May  the  motto  be  ours  for  the 
coming  year  in  the  form  suggested  by  one  of  our  devoted  missionaries,  '  We 
can  —  we  will.'  " 


THE    CLOSING   SERVICE.  315 

Remarks  were  made  by  Mr.  Clinton  Q.  Richmond,  of  North 
Adams,  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Entertainment,  and  by 
Rev.  W.  E.  Thompson,  of  North  Adams,  pastor  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  in  which  the  Boaid  met. 

Rev.  Theodore  E.  Busfield  made  a  response  in  behalf  of  the 
Congregational  churches  of  North  Adams  and  Williamstown  to 
the  resolution  of  thanks. 

President  Capen  made  a  response  in  behalf  of  the  Board,  express- 
ing gratitude  to  the  people  of  North  Adams  and  Williamstown  for 
their  hospitality. 

Rev.  E.  E.  Strong  led  in  prayer  and  pronounced  the  benediction, 
and  the  Board  adjourned  without  day,  thus  bringing  to  a  close 
one  of  the  most  successful  meetings  it  has  ever  held. 


316  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


ADDRESS  IN  MEMORY  OF  REV.  JUDSON  SMITH,  D.D. 
Rev.  Edward  D.  Eaton,  D.D. 

Among  memory's  pictures  of  Dr.  Judson  Smith,  one  which  is 
invested  for  me  with  special  interest  is  connected  with  a  scene 
during  our  journey  of  a  week  on  the  Grand  Canal  of  North  China. 
After  the  days  spent  in  the  house-boat  it  was  refreshing  to  leave 
it  for  an  hour  or  two  at  evening  and  walk  through  the  fields  and 
villages,  while  around  the  great  curves  of  the  river,  in  which  the 
canal  is  merged  for  part  of  its  course,  our  boats  swung,  propelled 
by  high,  narrow  sails,  or,  if  the  wind  failed,  dragged  by  coolie 
"  trackers  "  toiling  along  the  bank. 

It  was  Easter  week,  and  spring  was  astir.  The  level  rays  of 
the  westering  sun  shone  across  the  fertile  plain,  touching  the 
blossoms  of  the  apricot  trees  and  the  greening  fields.  With  elastic 
step  Dr.  Smith  moved  through  the  unwonted  scene,  his  eye 
kindling  as  we  talked  together,  his  mind  ranging  now  through 
the  spiritual  destitutions  so  painfully  manifest  around  us,  now 
through  boundless  hopes  which  his  faith  sketched  for  the  future 
of  that  empire,  which  extended  on  all  sides  of  us  like  an  illimitable 
ocean. 

If  Dr.  Smith  felt  himself  always  an  ambassador  for  Christ,  and 
thrilled  with  a  sense  of  the  august  responsibilities  of  the  great 
missionary  organization  in  which  he  was  given  leadership,  that 
feeling  was  intensified  in  a  land  where  the  missionary  cause  has 
been  so  devotedly  and  successfully  advanced.  His  face  shone 
when  he  addressed  native  audiences.  In  conference  with  workers 
on  the  field  his  affection  for  these  heroic  brothers  and  sisters  was 
evident,  and  the  quickness  and  depth  of  his  sympathy  with  their 
problems.  "  Remember,  I  am  your  secretary,"  he  used  to  say, 
with  eager  desire  to  have  them  lay  off  on  him,  if  possible,  a  portion 
of  their  burdens. 

It  was  as  a  college  teacher  that  Judson  Smith  won  his  first 
large  influence.  There  are  those  here  today  who  could  tell  you 
that  their  earliest  conception  of  elegant  scholarship  was  gained 
when  they  entered  his  class  in  Latin.  They  could  tell  you,  too, 
how  at  first  they  feared  him,  for  he  was  an  exacting  teacher;  negli- 
gence in  thought,  no  less  than  negligence  in  dress,  was  repugnant 
to  him.     But  they  soon  came  to  love  him,  as  they  recognized  his 


Rev.  JuDSON  Smith.   D.I).. 
Secretary  of  tlie  Foreign  Department,  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  from  1884-1906. 


ADDRESS  IN  MEMORY  OF  REV.   JUDSON  SMITH,  D.D.  317 

concern  for  them,  his  throbbing  fellowship  with  their  aspirations 
and  efforts. 

Along  the  road  of  Christian  scholarship,  Dr.  Smith  came  to  his 
place  of  leadership  in  missions.  From  the  study  of  early  Chris- 
tianity and  its  evangelizing  grip  upon  the  Roman  world,  he  leaped 
to  the  full  recognition  of  the  fact  that  modern  missions  are  ori- 
ginal Christianity  reasserting  and  vindicating  itself,  and  at  once 
for  him  they  became  simply  Christlike  and  apostolic. 

Some  of  us  remember  how,  at  the  meeting  of  the  Board  in  St. 
Louis,  twenty-five  years  ago,  when  the  founding  of  the  Shansi 
Mission  was  announced,  he  told  us  of  the  coming  of  the  young  men 
into  his  study  to  confide  to  him  that  his  teaching  of  church 
history  had  enkindled  in  them  the  purpose  to  form  a  missionary 
band,  and  to  invite  him  to  go  with  them  as  their  leader  in  work  in 
China.  It  did  not  seem  wise  to  him  to  change  thus  radically  the 
scene  of  his  life-work,  but  his  missionary  ardor  had  a  deeper 
personal  quality  from  that  hour,  and  his  secretaryship  in  the  Board 
was  a  natural  outcome  of  the  entire  experience.  Into  it  he  threw 
his  whole  heart  and  his  fullest  conviction.  And  China,  as  we 
might  expect,  has  seemed  to  have  special  claim  upon  his  faith 
and  service.  After  the  Boxer  cataclysm,  when  hope  of  progress 
appeared  submerged  perhaps  for  generations,  and  the  question 
was  raised  as  to  the  expediency  of  withdrawing  from  China  for 
a  time,  or  at  least  curtailing  effort  there,  with  what  ringing  affir- 
mation of  the  fundamentals  of  faith  in  the  triumph  of  the  kingdom, 
and  what  inspiring  appeal  to  courage  in  the  face  of  disaster,  did 
he  call  upon  us  to  reenforce  our  shattered  ranks,  and  organize  a 
great  forward  movement  in  the  Chinese  empire.  How  swiftly 
and  signally  the  march  of  events  has  justified  his  prophetic  words! 

Every  detail  of  missionary  service  found  its  place  in  Dr.  Smith's 
mind  in  the  wide  perspective  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  It  was, 
therefore,  impossible  that  anything  could  for  him  be  trivial  or 
uninteresting  that  had  relation  to  the  mighty  whole.  This  kept 
him  tireless  in  executive  efficiency,  and  buoyant  in  his  enthusiasm 
for  whatever  concerned  any  part  of  any  remotest  field.  To  his 
deep-seeing  eyes  the  Lord  of  the  kingdom  appeared  incarnate 
anew  in  each  obscurest  manifestation  of  his  power  and  grace. 
On  such  terms  it  was  great  to  live  and  glorious  to  be  at  work. 
The  Ecumenical  Missionary  Conference  of  1900  aroused  and  taxed 
his  powers  to  the  utmost.  As  chairman  of  the  general  committee 
he  gave  himself  unreservedly  to  the  great  amount  of  detail  involved, 


318  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

all  of  it  being  transfigured  in  his  glowing  spirit  as  (in  his  own 
words)  "  the  story  of  Christ's  advancing  kingdom,  a  record  more 
thrilling  and  more  significant  than  any  epic  which  man  has  pro- 
duced, or  the  thought  of  man  has  conceived." 

Long  will  he  be  vividly  present  in  our  thought  at  these  annual 
gatherings;  courtly  of  bearing,  a  high-bred  gentleman,  with  a 
fine  sense  of  the  meaning  and  possibilities  of  an  occasion;  the 
vigorous  form,  the  expressive  face,  the  vibrant  voice,  the  ardent 
greeting,  all  of  these  will  live  in  our  memories.  How  his  soul 
would  have  been  stirred  by  this  anniversary! 

But  he  has  passed  from  our  sight.  In  one  of  his  college  addresses 
years  ago  he  dwelt  on  Tennyson's  "  Ulysses,"  commending  the 
spirit  which,  after  long  experience  of  life,  still  finds  "  the  un- 
traveled  world  "  alluring,  and  is  eager  to  push  off,  "  made  weak 
by  time  and  fate,  but  strong  in  will  to  strive,  to  seek/ to  find,  and 
not  to  yield."  May  we  not  think  of  him,  under  a  like  figure,  as 
"  sailing  beyond  the  sunset,"  the  breath  of  God  upon  his  sail, 
passing  out  into  the  unseen  universe  as  upon  a  divine  adventure, 
facing  toward  some  uncharted  mission  field  where  God  has  com- 
missioned him  to  serve. 

"  And  doubtless  unto  thee  is  given 
A  life  that  bears  immortal  fruit, 
In  those  great  offices  that  suit 
The  full-grown  energies  of  heaven." 


Ilow    THE    GOSPEL    WORKS    AMONG    THE    ZULUS.  319 

HOW  THE  GOSPEL   WORKS  AMONG  THE  /IMS. 
Rev.  Frederick  B.  Bridgman,  of  the  Soi  te  A.fri<  \  Mission. 

The  year  L806  was  momentous  in  South  African  history.  It 
was  about  this  time  that  the  military  genius,  Chaka,  appeared  on 
the  scene.  This  young  warrior,  by  his  prowess,  secured  the 
chieftainship  of  the  Zulu  tribe,  then  insignificant.  He  organized  a 
standing  army  which  was  divided  into  regiments,  established  great 
military  kraals,  and  gave  his  soldiers  a  new  weapon,  compelling 
them  to  fight  at  close  quarters.  Death  was  made  the  penalty  for 
retreat,  whether  it  were  one  man  or  a  thousand  were  guilty  of 
cowardice.  With  an  army  small,  but  invincible,  this  dusky 
Napoleon  began  his  career  as  conqueror.  Within  a  few  years  he 
subjugated  one  hundred  and  fifty  tribes,  whose  remnants  were 
absorbed,  thus  forming  the  Zulu  nation.  By  the  welding  of  these 
tribes,  by  unifying  the  language  through  the  spread  of  the  beau- 
tiful and  unique  Zulu  tongue,  the  bloodthirsty  Chaka  was  used 
of  God  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  Prince  of  Peace.  At  this  very 
time,  in  America,  the  spirit  of  Christ  was  stirring  the  hearts  of 
young  men  to  pray  for  the  heathen  world,  was  moving  the  pastors 
who  met  in  Farmington  to  organize  the  American  Board,  and 
later,  in  1835,  God  led  Lindley,  Adams,  and  Grout  to  offer  them- 
selves for  service  among  the  Zulus.  In  this  field,  where  eleven 
years  passed  before  the  first  hopeful  conversion,  what  has  been 
accomplished? 

Consider  the  power  of  the  gospel  as  seen  in  the  life  of  one  Zulu. 
Some  years  ago  near  our  Inanda  station  lived  a  man  in  middle  life. 
You  know  his  appearance,  a  splendid  physique,  in  this  instance 
over  six  feet  tall.  His  dress  —  a  kilt  of  spotted  wildcat  skin,  the 
bracelets  of  brass,  the  bead  necklace,  and  his  head  crowned  with 
a  polished  ebony-black  ring  sewed  to  the  hair.  You  know  his 
mode  of  life,  a  polygamist  with  his  kraal  of  five  or  six  huts  built 
around  the  circular  cattle  pen.  Of  the  beer  drinks,  the  degrading 
superstitions,  and  the  prevailing  licentiousness  I  need  but  remind 
you;  but  somehow  this  stalwart  Zulu  of  forty- five  years  becomes 
possessed  writh  a  desire  for  knowledge.  He  seeks  the  mission  sta- 
tion, and  it  is  said  that  just  over  the  brow  of  the  hill  he  halts  that 
he  may  add  a  pair  of  trousers  to  the  shirt  he  already  wears.  See 
this  man  bending  over  the  alphabet,  the  sweat  trickling  down  his 


320  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

face;  but  his  perseverance  brings  victory.  In  the  school  he  hears 
daily  the  gospel  read  and  explained.  At  last,  even  against  his  own 
desire,  the  truth,  he  says,  was  forced  upon  him  that  God  knew  him, 
cared  for  him,  loved  him.  From  that  moment  this  man  testifies 
that  he  saw  that  he  must  make  a  break  with  his  heathenism  at 
whatever  cost.  But  what  about  his  three  wives?  For  months 
he  agonizes  over  this  difficulty  in  pfayer.  Finally,  he  must  return 
to  his  old  kraal.  On  the  way  a  messenger  greets  him  saying, 
"  Father,  your  wives  have  heard  that  you  wish  to  choose  the  Lord. 
They  send  me  to  say  that,  as  a  Christian,  they  hear  you  can  have  but 
one  wife.  They  have,' therefore,  agreed  together  who  shall  remain 
and  who  shall  go."  Drawing  aside  to  a  bush  by  the  road  this 
man  falls  upon  his  knees,  pouring  out  his  hea  1  in  praise  for  this 
miraculous  deliverance.  A  farewell  feast  for  his  old  associates, 
the  cutting  off  of  his  head  ring,  a  sacrifice  which  we  can  hardly 
measure,  and  its  return  to  the  chief  with  the  present  of  an  ox, 
and  our  convert  stands  forth  a  free  man  in  the  liberty  of  Christ 
Jesus.  Today  this  man  is  one  of  our  earnest,  efficient  preachers. 
Not  long  ago  I  attended  a  council  called  to  organize  a  church, 
which  he  had  gathered  out  of  heathenism.  Seventy  converts,  a 
church  building,  a  day  school,  a  parsonage,  where  I  sat  down  to  a 
well-cooked  dinner  served  in  civilized  style,  tell  the  story  of  this 
man's  transformation  and  subsequent  service.  Such  is  the  story 
of  one  Zulifprodigal  brought  back  to  the  Father's  house. 

Results  of  the  Gospel. 

Now  glance  at  what  the  gospel  does  in  a  community.  Some 
years  ago  three  or  four  of  our  Christian  families  moved  away  and 
settled  in  a  remote  district.  On  Sunday  they  always  met  for 
worship,  inviting  their  heathen  neighbors.  In  that  dark  region 
these  Christians  lifted  high  the  standard  of  strict  discipline  held 
by  our  Zulu  churches,  —  no  polygamy,  no  exchange  of  marriage- 
able daughters  for  cattle,  the  prohibition  of  intoxicants  and  native 
beer,  the  abandonment  of  all  vice  and  the  practice  of  the  magic 
art.  Unaided  by  any  missionary,  what  have  these  people  accom- 
plished? Visit  Impapalla  today,  and  you  will  find  more  than  a 
score  of  well-built  houses,  five  of  them  of  brick.  About  these 
homes  you  will  see  groves  and  fruit  trees.  They  raise  crops  which 
are  a  testimony  to  their  industry.  With  their  own  hands  these 
people  have  built  a  substantial  brick  church,  seating  two -hundred. 
True  to  American  Board  traditions,  they  have  erected  near  the 


HOW    THE    GOSPEL    WORKS     VMONG    THE    ZUL1  S.  321 

church  a  schoolhouse,  also  of  brick.  The  day  school  numbers 
some  eighty  pupils.  In  the  surrounding  country  several  out- 
stations  have  been  established.  Here  we  see  the  gospel  salt 
saving  and  sweetening  a  community. 

Once  more  attend  with  me  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Zulu 
churches.  First  there  assemble  the  delegates,  sixty  in  number, 
for  two  days  of  business.  After  the  devotional  exercises  there 
come  the  election  of  chairman  and  scribe,  the  reading  of  the  min- 
utes, the  adoption  of  an  order  of  business,  the  making  of  motions, 
which  are  discussed  and  voted  upon.  You  would  be  surprised  to 
see  that  every  man  has  a  note  book  and  pencil,  for  the  delegate 
remembers  that  some  church  away  off  in  the  wilds  has  paid  his 
traveling  expenses  and  will  hold  him  to  strict  account  for  a  full 
report.  When  these  people  get  together  they  mean  business. 
The  sessions  often  last  far  into  the  night.  Several  times  I  have 
been  in  session  with  these  Zulu  brethren  from  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning  until  three  the  next.  The  closing  hour  of  the  business 
meeting  is  devoted  to  receiving  the  year's  contributions  to  the 
missionary  society.  As  the  roll  of  churches  is  read,  the  delegates 
respond  by  coming  forward  and  depositing  their  contributions 
with  the  treasurer.  Applause  greets  those  who  bring  the  full 
assessment,  while  an  exhortation  is  given  those  who  have  failed 
in  their  duty.  The  business  over,  there  follow  four  days  of  reli- 
gious services.  From  far  and  near,  by  railway,  ox  cart,  and  on 
foot,  hundreds  of  visitors  come  pouring  in.  How  I  wish  you 
might  attend  this  feast  of  tabernacles!  You  would  be  thrilled 
by  the  hearty  congregational  singing.  You  would  be  impressed 
by  the  earnest  prayers,  and  marvel  at  the  eloquent  and  instructive 
sermons.  Not  least  you  would  rejoice  in  the  prayerful,  reverent 
spirit  pervading  the  whole  assembly.  In  these  Zulu  churches, 
self-supporting,  largely  self-governing,  self-propagating,  we  see 
the  gospel  leaven  saving  not  only  the  individual  or  community, 
but  permeating  a  people.  We  see  the  promise  of  a  race  }uelding 
glad  allegiance  to  Christ  the  King! 

But  the  Zulu  mission  has  not  reached  its  goal.  It  was  not 
planted  for  the  evangelization  of  Natal  and  Zululand  alone.  The 
churches,  common  schools,  boarding  institutions,  and  theological 
seminaries,  the  Zulu  literature  created,  the  industrial  and  medical 
departments,  have  all  been  established  as  abase  of  supply,  a  base 
for  operations  that  should  at  least  cover  the  regions  conquered  by 
Chaka  and  his  generals  one  hundred  years  ago.     Toward  this  end 


322  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

a  beginning  has  indeed  been  made.  In  Gazaland,  one  thousand 
miles  north  of  Natal,  a  little  band  of  missionaries,  with  their 
splendid  Zulu  helpers,  have  done  a  great  work.  Profiting  by  what 
has  already  been  done  in  Natal,  the  Gaza  mission  has  already  been 
able  to  accomplish  in  twelve  years  what  required  twice  or  thrice 
that  time  in  the  Zulu  mission.  Last  year  another  strategic  point 
was  occupied,  when  the  Ruth  Tracy  Strong  station  was  opened  at 
Beira.  And  yet  again  advance  northward  has  been  made  in  the 
strange,  unexpected,  but  clearly  providential  way.  The  devotees 
of  mammon  have  invaded  South  Africa,  and  diamonds  and  gold 
have  built  great  cities  in  the  wilderness.  But  we  do  not  believe 
that  God's  purpose  in  this  commercial  development  is  the  gratifi- 
cation of  greed,  or  the  aggrandizement  of  empire.  Look  at 
Johannesburg,  with  its  hundred  thousand  native  workmen.  They 
come  from  the  east  as  far  as  the  Indian  Ocean,  four  hundred  miles, 
from  the  west  to  the  Atlantic,  from  the  south,  and  from  the  north 
as  far  as  the  Zambesi  and  even  beyond.  These  natives  of  every 
tribe  have  not  come  to  the  city  to  stay.  No,  they  will  work  for 
six  months  or  a  year,  then  back  they  go  to  their  distant  kraals. 
What  an  opportunity  for  the  Church  of  Christ  to  reach  these  men, 
to  touch  with  the  love  of  God,  and  send  them  back,  not  as  emis- 
saries of  the  white  man's  vices,  but  as  the  heralds  of  the  Saviour 
Jesus!  This  is  no  dream.  It  has  actually  been  done  again  and 
again.  Two  or  three  men  converted  in  our  Pretoria  church  re- 
turned to  their  homes,  four  hundred  miles  distant,  carrying  in 
their  hearts  the  love  of  God,  and  in  their  hands  the  Zulu  Bible, 
hymn  book,  and  primer.  In  that  dark  district  called  the  Place 
of  Lions  these  young  Christians  set  to  work.  God  has  honored  his 
Word,  even  though  preached  and  exemplified  in  a  very  crude  and 
imperfect  way.  Today  in  that  region  you  would  find  eight 
chapels,  stationed  from  five  to  ten  miles  apart;  you  would  see 
about  one  hundred  church  members,  besides  many  candidates  for 
baptism.  Such  is  the  reach  of  work  done  in  the  city.  It  affords 
a  marvelous  opportunity  for  the  rapid  and  economical  evangeli- 
zation of  many  untouched  tribes.  But  despite  the  ten  years  of 
pleading,  the  Zulu  Mission  stands  only  on  the  threshold  of  this 
open  door.     We  can  get  neither  the  men  nor  the  means  to  enter  in. 

Outlook  for  the  Future. 

Notwithstanding    the    unquestioned    results,    notwithstanding 
great  and  inviting  opportunities,  the  work  of  this  Board  in  South 


HOW   THE    GOSPEL   WORKS    AMONG    THE    ZULUS.  323 

Africa  is  in  the  most  critical  condition.  It  is  not  now  a  question 
of  advancing,  it  is  a  question  whether  we  shall  retreat,  whether 
we  can  even  hold  the  ground  already  gained.  For  years  both  the 
Gaza  and  Zulu  missions  have  been  desperately  calling  for  help. 
In  both  fields  the  workers  are  at  the  breaking  point;  some  have 
already  broken  down.  For  years  the  Zulu  Mission  has  called  for 
a  minimum  force  of  twelve  men.  Today  there  are  eight  men  on 
the  field  and  yet  the  work  is  greater,  the  burdens  heavier,  the 
problems  more  perplexing  than  ever  before.  On  top  of  it  all,  for 
six  months,  a  Zulu  insurrection,  in  which  five  thousand  natives 
were  killed,  has  been  in  progress.  Last  July  some  of  our  church 
members,. in  obedience  to  their  chief,  joined  the  insurrectionists. 
As  a  result,  three  of  our  stations  were  destroyed,  the  houses 
burned,  property  confiscated,  and  today  the  women  and  children 
are  left  on  the  hillsides  without  food  or  shelter.  The  sad,  sad 
fact  which  you,  representatives  of  the  Congregational  churches, 
must  face  is  this,  —  that  the  mission  believes  had  it  been  properly 
reenforced,  this  devastation  and  death  would  have  been  averted. 
This  recent  rebellion  is  but  a  phase  of  the  great  race  problem 
which  is  every  day  becoming  more  acute.  Yesterday  it  was  Boer 
against  Briton.  Today  it  is  white  against  black.  Tomorrow  this 
racial  antagonism  will  compass  the  continent.  But  the  real 
battle  ground  will  be  in  South  Africa.  It  is  there  that  the  ques- 
tion of  race  relationship  will  be  solved  for  all  Africa.  It  is  from 
the  south  —  northward  —  that  commerce  and  civilization  are 
making  their  irresistible  march.  It  is  from  the  south  that  Africa 
is  to  be  won  for  Christ!  The  missions  of  the  American  Board 
occupy  strategic  posts.  Did  I  not  believe  that  the  churches  would 
rally  to  our  support,  I  would  hesitate  to  leave  again  for  Africa,  as 
I  expect  to  do  next  month. 


324  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

A  PLEA  FOR  THE  MEDICAL  WORK  IN  CHINA. 
Rev.  H.  N.  Kinnear,  M.D. 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  represent  your  medical  work  in  China 
at  this  notable  meeting.  I  have  ten  minutes  in  which  to  say  a 
thousand  words,  to  win  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  medical 
work  in  China.  The  appeal  for  the  medical  work  is  based  upon 
the  example  as  well  as  the  teachings  of  our  Master.  He  always 
emphasized  the  importance  of  his  works  of  healing.  He  gave  his 
disciples  the  power  to  heal  disease  and  to  cast  out  devils,  and 
directed  them  to  use  those  powers  in  doing  good,  quite  as  definitely 
as  he  directed  them  to  preach  the  gospel.  Medical  work  in  China 
is  the  church  in  the  guise  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  ministering  to 
the  suffering  neighbor  over  the  way.  It  is  this  work  which  makes 
the  words  of  the  Christian  preacher  live.  It  brings  Christianity 
into  most  marked  and  favorable  contrast  with  the  old  religions  of 
China. 

Confucianism  gives  many  rules  for  the  guidance  of  "  the  superior 
man,"  but  has  never  provided  in  any  way  for  the  unfortunate  one. 
Buddhism  ascribes  great  merit  to  the  man  who  keeps  fish,  birds, 
or  animals  alive  until  they  die  a  natural  death,  but  for  the  sick  or 
injured  man  it  has  provided  no  asylum.  Taoism  countenances  the 
removal  to  the  street  of  dying  strangers,  servants,  and  apprentices, 
because  of  the  fear  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead  which  it  inculcates. 
In  contrast  with  these,  Christianity  comes  with  its  hospitals  and 
kind  care  for  the  unfortunate,  a  hopeful,  helpful,  uplifting,  living 
force  that  the  dullest  can  understand. 

There  is  no  form  of  mission  work  about  which  the  testimony  of 
the  Chinese  themselves  is  so  uniformly  favorable.  Rich  and  poor, 
high  and  low,  Christian  and  non-Christian,  unite  in  expressing,  in 
unqualified  terms,  their  appreciation  of  the  medical  work.  Medi- 
cal missions  are  not  only  appreciated  in  China,  but  they  find  their 
widest  field  of  usefulness  there.  Its  hundreds  of  millions  of 
people,  its  lack  of  knowledge  of  medical  science,  and  especially  its 
entire  want  of  surgical  knowledge  and  practice,  and  the  general 
indifference  to  suffering  in  others,  unite  to  prove  to  us  that  if  we 
would  preach  Christ  to  this  people,  we  must  do  something  more 
than  to  say  "  Go  in  peace;   be  thou  fed  and  clothed  and  healed." 

If  we  could  bring  before  you  a  group  of  our  patients,  and  make 


A    PLEA    FOR    THE    MEDICAL    WORK    IN    CHINA.  325 

you  realize  what  it  means  to  live  in  a  country  without  hospitals 
and  intelligent  medical  care,  I  am  sure  that  this  body  of  Christians 
would  be  the  center  of  such  a  wave  of  enthusiasm  for  the  medical 
work  that  we  would  not  need  to  make  another  such  plea  as  this 
during  this  generation. 

I  can  see  them  now,  cannot  you?  The  old  man,  that  is  first  led 
in,  has  cataracts.  Your  medical  worker  is  ready  to  give  his  knowl- 
edge and  skill.     Will  you  use  them  to  give  sight  to  the  blind? 

Here  comes  the  widow,  the  bones  of  whose  first  finger  are  dead, 
and  the  whole  hand  diseased.  She  has  suffered  misery  and  been 
half  fed  for  weeks.  The  finger  must  be  removed.  Cocaine  is 
used,  and  after  the  work  is  done  the  woman  asks  if  we  are  not 
ready  to  begin  cutting  yet.  Are  you  willing  to  furnish  the  dress- 
ings for  this  case?  It  will  cost  a  dollar  or  so  before  she  is  well,  but 
will  you  not  find  pleasure  in  her  gratitude,  and  in  seeing  her  regain 
the  use  of  her  hand? 

This  is  a  little  girl  with  sore  eyes.  It  is  a  common  trouble,  and 
often  causes  blindness.  And  blindness  in  a  girl  in  China  usually 
leads  to  the  brothel.  The  medicine  with  which  to  treat  her,  and 
perhaps  save  her  sight,  and  indirectly  her  soul,  will  cost  a  few 
cents.     Is  it  worth  while? 

The  next  is  a  man  with  ulcers  on  his  legs,  type  of  hundreds  that 
come  to  us;  they  are  not  pleasant  to  look  at.  No  member  of  the 
man's  own  family  is  willing  to  wash  the  sores  for  him.  Let  us 
wash  the  limb,  remove  the  collected  discharges,  curette  away  the 
diseased  granulations,  dress  and  bandage  it,  and  see  how  rapidly 
it  will  heal,  and  how  friendly  the  man  will  become  as  he  notes  our 
willingness  to  do  whatever  is  necessary  to  heal  him. 

Yesterday  afternoon  a  tiger  sprang  upon  this  man  and  shattered 
his  elbow  with  a  vicious  bite.  An  effort  was  made  to  stop  the 
bleeding  by  stuffing  the  wound  with  the  ashes  of  a  burned  felt 
hat,  and  wrapping  it  in  soiled  rags.  An  amputation  will  save  the 
man's  life,  and  only  the  foreign  surgeon  can  do  this  for  him.  He 
seems  to  think  that  his  life  is  worth  saving.     Do  you? 

This  man  is  blind  because  an  enemy,  it  may  have  been  an 
offended  brother,  has  rubbed  quicklime  into  his  eyes,  a  com- 
mon crime  in  Foochow.  An  iridectomy,  to  make  a  new  pupil,  will 
give  him  his  sight  again.  We  leave  it  to  you  to  decide  whether 
he  shall  be  left  in  darkness  the  remainder  Of  his  life  or  not. 

The  next  is  a  boy  writh  a  splinter  of  dead  bone  in  his  leg.  He 
has  suffered  pain  for  months  and  perhaps  years,  and  the  Chinese 


326  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

doctors  can  do  nothing  for  him.  The  opening  in  the  leg  is  enlarged, 
the  dead  bone  is  taken  out,  and  we  have  another  case  that  will 
need  a  few  dimes'  worth  of  dressing  material  before  he  is  able  to 
walk  again. 

We  are  astonished  to  have  this  small  boy  tell  us  that  he  is  nine- 
teen years  old.  When  he  uncovers  his  arm  we  find  the  reason  for 
his  under-development.  Seven  years  ago,  when  he  was  twelve 
years  old,  a  snake  bit  his  hand.  To  prevent  the  swelling  reaching 
the  body,  a  Chinese  doctor  directed  that  a  ligature  be  placed 
around  the  arm  above  the  elbow.  We  find  the  arm  and  hand  a 
mass  of  disease,  discharging  great  quantities  of  pus  from  numerous 
openings.  Nothing  can  restore  the  arm  to  usefulness,  but  it  can 
be  removed  at  the  shoulder  and  insure  the  boy  returning  health 
and  freedom  from  pain. 

And  here  is  a  leper.  Pray  do  not  turn  away  from  him,  for  it's 
a  sad  enough  thing  to  be  a  leper.  He  has  tried  to  rid  himself 
of  one  of  the  diseased  patches  by  applying  a  caustic,  and  we  must 
clean  and  dress  the  sloughing,  leprous  sore  that  is  left.  He  has 
no  other  place  to  go  for  such  help,  and  we  shall  find  him  one  of 
our  most  appreciative  patients,  and  most  ready  to  listen  to  the 
religious  teachings  of  men  who  do  such  things  for  him. 

And  so  the  procession  of  from  forty  to  a  hundred  cases  passes 
before  us  every  day,  some  cases  more  serious  than  these,  and 
many  much  less  so. 

In  this  way  the  mission  hospitals  bring  within  the  sound  of  the 
gospel  an  audience  of  people  who  are  disposed,  by  the  kindness 
they  have  received,  to  listen  attentively,  day  after  day,  as  long  as 
they  come  for  treatment,  an  audience  gathered,  not  from  some 
small  neighborhood,  but  from  a  wide  area.  The  missionary 
physician  does  not  need  to  travel  to  reach  people  with  the  gospel. 
They  come  to  him. 

The  constituencies  of  other  boards  appreciate  the  medical  work 
and  support  it  generously,  because  they  find  that  it  pays.  In 
Fukien  province  the  Methodist  mission  has  built,  in  district 
towns,  hospitals  that  have  cost  ten  thousand  dollars.  They  have 
left  to  us  the  work  at  Foochow,  the  provincial  capital,  with  its 
million  of  people,  the  most  stragetic  point  of  all,  and  we  have  al- 
ready allowed  this  most  important  work  to  remain  five  years 
without  a  building.  This  is  our  oldest  medical  work  in  China, 
having  been  established  thirty-five  years,  but  it  is  losing  prestige 
and  influence,  precious  souls  are  losing  an  opportunity  to  hear 


A    PLEA    FOB    THE    MEDICAL    WORE    IN   CHINA.  327 

the  gospel,  and  a  valuable  part  of  your  worker's  life  is  being 
wasted,  because  the  funds  needed  for  the  new  building  and  equip- 
ment have  not  been  raised.  This  is  only  one  of  the  many  cases  of 
need  in  the  medical  work,  of  a  failure  to  appreciate  the  value  of 
the  tools  within  our  reach.  In  the  North  China  Mission  some 
medical  work  has  had  to  be  discontinued  for  want  of  funds,  while 
in  other  places  where  it  is  needed,  it  is  not  opened  for  the  same 
reason. 

Reports  come  from  your  medical  workers  telling  of  thousands, 
tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands,  of  treatments  given  every  year, 
but  the  amount  which  the  American  Board  is  enabled  to  appro- 
priate for  this  work  is  pitifully  small.  This  means  that  too 
much  of  your  worker's  time  and  strength  must  be  used  in  raising 
money  from  every  available  source,  or  that  he  must  draw  upon 
his  own  salary  in  order  to  be  able  to  do  the  work  at  all.  While 
Christian  people  are  so  generous  in  giving  to  hospitals  here  in 
America,  may  we  not  reasonably  hope  that  our  call  for  help  in 
doing  the  same  kind  of  work  in  China,  where  the  need  is  infinitely 
greater,  may  come  to  listening  ears? 

We  have  again  led  you  to  see  the  wounded  "  neighbor,"  and 
you  know  his  needs.  Do  not,  I  pray  you,  pass  by  on  the  other 
side,  but  fill  the  bottles  with  the  oil  of  love  and  the  wine  of  self- 
sacrifice,  and  thus  do  the  same  work  that  Jesus  would  certainly 
do  if  he  were  to  walk  the  streets  of  a  Chinese  city  today. 

A  few  days  ago  a  friend  of  the  Board  told  me  that  after  the 
battle  of  Gettysburg  there  was  a  group  of  wounded  men  who  had 
fallen  into  the  bed  of  a  small  brook  and  were  half  covered  with 
mud,  being  unable  to  move.  Some  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation workers  asked,  "  Shall  we  pray  for  you  ?"  and  one  of  the 
men  replied,  "  Just  pull  us  out  of  the  mud  first  and  then  you  can 
pray  all  you  want  to."  Human  nature  is  the  same  all  over  the 
world.  Do  something  to  help  the  man  that  needs  you  if  you  want 
him  to  have  confidence  in  your  religion. 


328  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 


THE  WORK  AND  THE  MISSIONARY. 

Rev.  Elwood  G.  Tewksbury, 
Missionary  at  Tung-chou,  North  China. 

New  and  strange  conditions  in  the  far  East  demand  our  earnest 
attention.  This  has  been  recognized  by  the  urgent  requests  from 
the  missions  for  visiting  deputations.  Attention  is  also  being 
almost  daily  called  to  the  East  by  the  press,  your  government 
officials  are  anxiously  watching  constant  diplomatic  develop- 
ments, your  merchants  are  uncertain  as  to  their  future  markets, 
and  it  is  not  strange  that  your  missionaries  should  call  on  you  to 
study  carefully  the  situation,  and  seek  your  help  in  the  use  of 
measures  fitted  to  the  crisis  before  us.  A  science  of  missions  there 
is,  or  should  be,  and  one  of  its  tenets  will  be,  that  no  one  method 
of  missionary  work  should  have  the  same  emphasis  at  all  times 
and  in  all  fields.  Each  field  and  crisis  demands  separate  treat- 
ment and  that  only  after  careful  and  scientific  study  of  the 
conditions. 

We  may  state  briefly  the  changes  that  have  been  and  are  now 
affecting  most  the  missionary  situation,  but  withouu  an  oppor- 
tunity to  state  the  causes  that  underlie  these  changes.  First, 
and  perhaps  the  most  important,  in  that  it  underlies  all  the  others, 
is  the  predominant  influence  of  Japan  upon  China,  in  politics, 
industry,  education,  and  religion.  The  converse  of  this  is  the 
waning  of  other  foreign  influence  along  the  same  lines.  And 
the  third,  a  corollary  to  the  others,  in  being  more  or  less  directly 
incited  by  Japanese  conditions  and  progress,  is  the  new  national 
spirit,  manifested  in  the  cry,  "  China  for  the  Chinese."  That  in 
Japanese  influence  which  we  have  most  to  fear  is  the  materialistic 
tendency  of  her  civilization,  as  at  present  manifested  in  press 
and  publication.  That  in  the  national  spirit  that  affects  mission 
effort  adversely  is  the  order  of  the  awakening.  Political,  military, 
and  commercial  independence,  and  education  as  ministering  to 
material  progress,  come  first  in  popular  demand.  But  that  which 
is  absolutely  fundamental,  —  the  growth  of  ethical  and  religious 
purity,  —  finds  as  yet  little  congenial  soil.  Would  that  the  peo- 
ple of  the  East  might  search  and  truly  find  the  true  Source  of 
that    life    and    truth    which    underlies    the    civilizations    whose 


THE    WORK    AND    THE    MISSIONARY.  .     329 

products  they  arc  appropriating,  but  whose  roots  may  fail  to  grow 
in  alien  soil. 

As  in  Japan,  independence,  political  and  commercial,  will  ac- 
centuate the  desire  and  peril aps  the  demand  for  a  free  and  inde- 
pendent church.  We  distinctly  face  the  possibility  in  the  not 
distant  future  of  leaving  (willingly  or  by  invitation)  the  native 
church  to  the  support  and  control  of  the  Chinese  themselves. 
This  has  already  taken  place  as  regards  the  Congregational 
churches  of  Japan.  Not  only  is  it  the  hope  of  the  missionary,  but 
the  set  purpose  for  which  this  Board  exists,  to  found  in  non- 
Christian  lands  a  self-supporting,  self-governing,  and  self-propa- 
gating native  church.  To  this  end  missionary  and  Board  for 
well-nigh  a  century  have  bent  their  medical,  evangelistic,  and  edu- 
cational agencies;  and  looking  toward  this  glorious  possibility  the 
churches  of  America  have  given  of  their  prayers  and  substance  and 
life.  It  may,  therefore,  seem  strange  that  the  possibility  of  facing 
the  Japan  situation  in  China  within  perhaps  a  decade  fills  your 
missionaries  with  anxiety.  But  it  is  anxiety  lest  these  churches, 
too  soon  willing  to  dispense  with  advice  and  help,  may  be  left  weak, 
financially  and  spiritually.  It  is  fear  lest,  being  unable  properly 
to  train  their  ministry  and  nurture  their  membership,  they  will  be 
open  to  the  materialistic  and  sociological  temptations  of  the  period. 
But  the  possibility  and  the  hope  that  we  may  live  to  see  in  China 
thoroughly  spiritual  and  aggressive  native  churches,  associa- 
ting in  practical  working  union,  animated  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  eager  to  save  the  land  they  love  "  for  Christ  and  the  Church," 
—  this  should  offset  our  anxieties. 

Conditions  of  Work  in  North  China. 

I  am  now  asking  you  for  a  few  moments  to  study  a  circumscribed 
region  in  North  China  where  mission  work  has  been  carried  on 
for  some  forty  years.  The  region  includes  Manchuria,  Chihli, 
and  the  northwest  Shantung,  and  embraces  the  work  of  some 
six  English  and  four  American  missions.  It  has  a  population  of 
perhaps  forty  million,  of  whom  twenty  thousand  are  Christian. 
Among  the  hundreds  of  native  churches  in  this  district,  there  are 
but  few  which  are  wholly  self-supporting,  and  at  present  prob- 
ably none  absolutely  independent  of  foreign  control.  Grant,  then, 
that  our  task  continues  to  be,  to  establish  in  this  region  many 
self-supporting,  self-governing,  and  self-propagating  churches; 
and  that  the  exigencies  of  the  occasion  demand  great  haste  and 


330  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

concentrated  effort.  The  native  church  needs  to  emphasize 
three  things:  (1)  An  educated,  consecrated,  and  enthusiastic- 
native  ministry;  (2)  a  well-nurtured,  earning  and  working  mem- 
bership; and  (3)  in  the  opinion  of  many  mission  leaders,  it  need 
not  be  bound  by  present  denominational  lines,  but  be  "  union  "  in 
its  sympathies,  its  doctrines,  and  its  activities. 

First,  as  to  the  native  ministry.  Of  this  there  are  at  present 
among  the  eight  hundred  Christian  workers  of  the  district  perhaps 
forty  pastors  and  some  four  hundred  preachers,  evangelists,  etc. 
The  leadership  to  which  these  men  may  be  called  implies  conse- 
cration, education,  enthusiasm,  and  many  other  characteristics. 
Two  thirds,  however,  of  the  workers  having  been  converted  in 
middle  life,  a  thorough  Christian  education  has,  of  course,  been 
impossible.  Of  the  remaining  third,  only  a  few  dozen  have  what 
would  be  the  equivalent  of  a  college  and  seminary  course  in  the 
United  States.  Regarding  enthusiasm,  we  are  forced  to  believe 
there  are  many  in  the  work  who  would  prefer  other  positions,  or 
who  for  various  reasons  are  unhappy  in  a"  calling  "  without  the 
"  call,"  fatal  to  a  great  enthusiasm  for  Christ  and  his  Church. 
Regarding  consecration,  two  dangers,  shallowness  and  "  crust- 
hardening,"  assail  an  uneducated  ministry.  Twyo  temptations, 
neglect  of  devotional  Bible  study  and  spiritual  laxity,  are  not 
lessened  by  isolation  amidst  heathen  surroundings.  If,  then,  it 
is  true  that  our  preachers  need  education,  both  general  and  special, 
a  deeper  knowledge  of  God's  Word,  a  closer  association  with  their 
fellows  in  Christian  work;  if  we  crave  for  them  such  a  view  of 
their  country  and  its  need  of  the  Saviour  as  shall  win  the  Spirit's 
call  for  fervent  service,  should  we  not  emphasize  such  special 
agencies  as  seek  to  bring  about  the  results  desired?  If  the 
agencies  needed  do  not  exist,  let  us  create  new  ones.  We  have 
many  schools  which  have  done  wonderfully  effective  work.  If, 
however,  the  spirit  of  the  times  is  so  permeating  the  youth  that 
the  graduates  of  our  present  schools  are  seeking  other  pursuits 
rather  than  the  service  of  the  Church,  let  us  have  new  agencies 
to  find  out  and  educate  men  who  cannot  but  give  their  lives  "  for 
Christ  and  the  Church."  If  Bible  and  normal  training  are  needed, 
let  us  have  institutions  that  can  specialize  in  this  work.  If  iso- 
lation is  keeping  back  the  spiritual  growth  of  our  agents,  let  us 
multiply  our  conferences  and  our  summer  schools,  where  the 
best  that  any  one  man  has  may  be  shared  by  all.  If  the 
workers  cannot  come  to  us,  let  us  reach  them  in  their  homes, 


THE    WORK     Wl>    THE    MISSIONARY.  331 

with  our  local  conferences,  our  loan  libraries,  and  our  corre- 
spondence courses.  Keep  them  in  touch  with  all  that  is  best  in 
all  the  missions,  and  "  Christianity  will  become  a  more  glorious 
fact  and  Christian  unity  a  present  possession." 

One  main  reason  why  we  have  so  few  self-supporting  churches  is 
that  the  Christian  membership  has  within  it  few  who  arc  rich. 
A  large  majority  of  our  members  come  from  the  farming  and 
middle  working  classes.  The  money  earnings  of  most  are,  there- 
fore, very  little  above  the  actual  daily  expenditure.  Perhaps  no 
one  material  benefit  thai  you  could  help  us  secure  would  so  aid 
in  the  establishment  of  self-supporting  churches  as  the  endow- 
ment of  industrial  and  trade  schools  where  young  men  may  be 
taught  useful  trades  and  industries  and  such  new  or  improved 
methods  as  may  increase  the  earning  power  of  the  Christian 
community.  This  need  is  seen  most  clearly  by  our  native  helpers. 
What  use  for  committees  to  urge  self-support  on  the  missions 
unless  they  encourage  the  use  of  the  means  necessary  to  bring 
about  the  desired  results?  It  is  not  only  that  the  people  be  urged 
to  give,  but  that  they  may  be  made  able  to  give.  But  money  is 
far  from  being  the  only  essential.  Such  is  the  ease  with  which 
adherents  may  be  secured  at  this  day,  that  some  of  our  wisest 
leaders  have  almost  to  call  a  halt  until  forces  are  available  for 
nurture  and  training.  It  is  wrorkers  we  must  have,  nor  is  it 
money  alone  that  will  secure  them.  If  we  are  at  all  to  enter  the 
open  door  in  this  new  China,  we  must  be  able  to  use  wisely  all 
whom  God  has  called,  whether  they  be  graduates  or  laymen.  If 
laymen,  you  must  give  us  the  means  to  train  them  for  service,  for 
untrained  men  are  often  worse  than  useless.  We  cannot  wait  for 
our  college  men,  and  if  we  did  wait  but  few  would  be  available, 
and  nowhere  is  time  so  precious  as  at  this  very  crisis  in  China's 
life  struggle.  We  must  educate  the  workers  that  they  may 
nurture  the  members.  Nurture  at  this  time  is  perhaps  more 
acutely  demanded  even  than  extension. 

As  to  the  union  we  all  so  much  desire  and  work  for,  —  spasmodi- 
cally, —  great  advances  have  been  made  since  the  Boxer  destruc- 
tion, and  these  have  made  reorganization  comparatively  easy. 
Greater  advances  would  have  come  if  opposition  at  home  had  not 
overturned  plans  formed  on  the  field.  But  the  greatest  advances 
are  bound  to  appear  when  the  native  church  is  able  to  be  free. 
For  that  day  we  are  all  praying,  but  in  fear  and  trembling,  al- 
though full  of  trust  that  God's  Spirit  may  so  mightily  move  upon 


332  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

the  native  pastors  that  the  truth,  as  it  is  in  God's  own  Word, 
being  their  guide,  his  Spirit  may  ever  animate  their  doctrines,  their 
worship,  and  their  enthusiasms. 

Points  to  be  Emphasized. 

I  cannot  close  without  stating  certain  points  of  emphasis  in  my 
own  life  and  character,  and  that  of  my  fellow-missionaries,  which 
might  well  be  accentuated  to  meet  the  needs  of  our  time.  To 
accomplish  the  results  we  are  seeking,  the  missionary  himself 
needs  to  be  economical,  inspiring,  fundamental,  dispensable,  and 
a  hundred  other  things  besides.  I  will  speak  a  word  concerning 
the  first  four  characteristics  only. 

You  need  the  economical  missionary.  A  Chinese  dollar  is 
worth,  in  the  market,  but  half  your  own,  but  in  Christian  work 
vastly  more.  We  need  to  be  most  careful  to  use  your  money  as 
the  farmer  uses  his  fertilizer, — to  further  and  foster  native  effort. 
What  is  done  for  a  people  cannot  be  compared  with  what  we  inspire 
them  to  do  for  themselves.  It  is  not  extravagance  that  you  allow 
your  missionaries  comfortable  homes  and  a  support  adequate  to 
their  needs;  it  is  merely  sound  business  policy.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  must  remember  that  one  unmarried  missionary's  salary 
would  pay  that  of  a  half-dozen  and  more  native  pastors,  and  it 
should  concern  us  all  to  be  "  worthy  our  hire  "  in  the  Lord's 
vineyard. 

We  must  also  be  inspiring.  It  is  a  common  criticism  that 
missionaries  seek  to  reach  their-  audiences  by  destroying  faith  in 
the  old  gods.  Would  that  we  had  a  correct  word  for  the  true 
preacher.  Should  he  not  be  an  idealist,  one  who  sees  visions, 
vistas  of  truth  and  love,  and  is  so  helped  of  God's  Spirit  that  he 
can  reveal  these  to  his  people,  and  inspire  them  to  better  faith  and 
lives  —  the  inspirational  missionary,  if  you  please,  himself  seeing 
the  vision,  then  inspiring  others  to  see  and  act?  And  this  not  only 
with  heathen;  with  our  own  students  and  helpers  it  is  the  same. 
Today  there  is  no  place  (has  there  ever  been  one?)  for  the  dicta- 
torial missionary,  who  would  "  lord  it  over  the  churches."  It  is 
by  influence,  not  authority,  that  the  new  China  may,  for  a  time  at 
least,  be  guided  to  a  higher  life.  Compel  this  in  your  older  men, 
make  it  axiomatic  in  your  selection  of  new  men. 

And  again,  we  need  fundamental  missionaries,  men  who  empha- 
size that  which  is  fundamental.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  lies  for 
China  through  a  gate,  and  many  forces  are  seeking  to  help  her 


THE     WOKK     AM)    THE     MISSIONARY.  333 

toward  that  gate  of  progress.  Material  prosperity,  her  railroads 
and  her  mines,  her  schools  and  printing  presses,  attempts  to 
free  herself  from  superstition  and  conservatism,  —  these  all  seem 
to  tend  toward  the  goal  of  her  ambitions.  Japan  has  preceded, 
and  almost  entered  the  promised  land.  But  we  to  whom  has  been 
revealed  the  truth  know  that  not  thus  is  the  gate  opened  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven;  know  that  each  step  of  material  progress, 
in  her  present  moral  and  spiritual  condition,  but  makes  entrance 
into  the  kingdom  more  difficult,  —  a  nation  approaching  a  closed 
gate  without  the  key.  The  key  is  Christ;  it  is  held  by  the  Church 
he  founded  with  his  own  precious  blood.  Moral  and  spiritual  life, 
by  the  indwelling  of  his  Spirit,  is  essential  to  true  progress  in  the 
East.  Given  life  from  above,  the  gate  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
will  open  to  these  Eastern  peoples,  and  all  that  is  wonderful  and 
great  and  true  and  good  in  civilization  follow.  May  her  mission- 
aries, may  the  deputation  you  send,  may  the  churches  that 
send  us  out,  cling  to  that  which  is  fundamental.  And  in  this 
sociological,  ethical,  materialistic  age  may  we  truly  believe  our- 
selves, and  preach  to  others,  the  gospel  as  it  is  in  Jesus  who  is 
the  only  way  and  truth  and  life  for  us,  as  for  China.  We  do  not 
want  teachers,  we  want  teaching  missionaries;  not  doctors,  but 
medical  evangelists;  only  such  missionaries  as  shall  themselves 
truly  know  what  is  fundamental,  and  be  qualified  and  inspired  of 
the  Spirit  to  win  others  to  their  faith.  In  the  vision  of  Ezekiel 
God  gives  sinews  and  flesh  and  skin  for  the  dry  bones,  and  a  body 
is  formed,  but  dead.  "Breath" — the  spirit  —  is  called  from 
the  "  four  winds,"  and  the  dead  live.  That  which  is  fundamental 
is  the  Spirit  of  God.  So  the  East  today  seeks  to  clothe  bones, 
dry  for  centuries,  with  sinew  and  flesh  and  skin.  The  corpse  is 
becoming  more  beautiful  and  promising  each  day.  But  here,  as 
of  old,  the  Holy  Spirit,  through  his  messengers  from  the  "  four 
winds,"  must  animate  hearts  now  dead  to  his  influence,  civiliza- 
tions as  yet  insensible  of  their  need,  nations  ignorant  of  that 
which  is  absolutely  essential  and  fundamental.  "  Prophesy  "  to 
them,  that  they  may  live  and  "  stand  upon  their  feet,  an  exceed- 
ing great  army!  " 

And  finally,  we  must  be  dispensable.  The  true  missionary  is 
sent  with  a  message,  a  messenger  only.  The  duty  called  for  in  his 
message  must  be  done  by  the  people  to  whom  his  message  is 
delivered.  It  is  alone  our  prayer  that  strength  and  time  permit 
God's  Spirit  so  to  work  through  us  as  to  fix  deep  and  strong  in  his 


334  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

Chinese  church  the  truth  which  we  witness  in  his  name.  We 
welcome  the  rise  of  Chinese  pastor  and  elder,  glad  indeed  to  resign 
into  consecrated  native  hands  the  conduct  of  our  Master's  work. 
They  must  increase,  and  we  are  glad  to  decrease.  The  wise 
missionary  is  he  who  trains  his  students  with  the  definite  end  of 
future  leadership  clearly  in  sight,  who  seizes  the  psychological 
moment  in  each  phase  of  work  when  native  leadership  will  best 
advance  its  interests,  who  so  plans  his  work  that  new  and,  perhaps, 
untried  lines  of  activity  await  his  freedom  from  earlier  tasks,  who, 
after  being  indispensable  in  many  spheres,  can  rejoice  in  seeing, 
while  himself  dispensable,  those  whom  the  Holy  Spirit  has 
inspired  through  his  instiumentality  carry  forward  each  uncom- 
pleted task  to  its  true  fulfillment. 

Such  is  the  glorious  privilege  and  the  hope  of  your  missionaries 
in  the  far  East.  Economical,  inspiring,  fundamental,  dispensable, 
we  try  to  be,  but  at  least  praying  to  be  used  of  God  in  found- 
ing self-supporting,  self-governing,  and  self-propagating  native 
churches.  An  educated,  enthusiastic,  and  consecrated  Chinese 
ministry;  a  well-nurtured,  earning,  and  working  membership; 
denominational  lines  obliterated,  a  united  Church  of  Christ 'in 
China,  —  for  this  you  have  sent  us  to  the  East.  You  have  planted, 
God  will  "  give  the  increase."  The  vision  is  an  even  more  glorious 
one  than  could  have  animated  Mills  and  his  comrades  under  the 
haystack  one  hundred  years  ago  —  for  the  consummation  is  nearer. 


MADURA    MISSION     WD    ITS    WORK.  335 


MADURA  MISSION  AND  ITS  WORK. 
Rev.  John  S.  Chandler. 

One  hundred  years  ago  Madura  was  a  fortified  city  of  twenty 
thousand  people,  walled  in  by  seventy-two  bastions.  Now  it  has 
one  hundred  and  six  thousand  people,  and  in  place  of  those 
bastions  there  are  four  churches,  two  hospitals,  a  college,  a  large 
school  for  girls,  one  for  training  Bible  women,  and  other  insti- 
tutions. Its  great  temple,  covering  more  than  thirteen  acres, 
was  its  chief  glory,  and  made  it  the  center  of  Hindu  worship  for 
all  South  India.  Its  magnificent  palace  was  in  ruins,  signifying 
its  complete  subjugation  by  the  East  India  Company.  There 
were  no  Protestant  Christians  within  its  walls.  The  Roman 
Catholic  mission  of  the  previous  two  centuries  had  been  suspended. 
Magic,  sorcery,  widow  burning,  exorcism  of  devils,  hook  swinging, 
self-torture,  and  self-immolation  were  practiced  in  the  city  and 
villages  round  about. 

For  twenty-four  years  thereafter  no  missionary  work  was  done, 
except  an  occasional  tour  through  the  district,  a  field  larger  than 
the  state  of  Massachusetts.  In  1830  the  Jesuit  mission  was 
reestablished.  In  1834  Rev.  Levi  Spaulding  of  the  Ceylon  Mission 
explored  the  field,  and  recommended  that  his  mission  extend 
their  work  to  Madura.  They  forthwith  sent  over  two  American 
missionaries  with  three  native  assistants.  These  started  a  work 
that  has  grown  continuously  from  that  day  to  this,  along  almost 
all  lines  of  the  missionary  endeavor. 

At  first  the  Hindu  leaders  despised  the  missionaries  as  pariahs 
from  America,  striving  to  awaken  in  the  minds  of  the  people  the 
same  contempt  that  they  felt  for  the  Portuguese  Roman  Catholic 
priests.  Later,  when  they  saw  the  missionaries,  and  especially 
the  missionary  ladies,  treated  with  attention  and  courtesy  by 
British  officials  at  public  functions,  they  were  enlightened,  but 
still  inimical.  A  missionary  who  tried  to  teach  a  poor  woman 
that  a  clay  idol  was  nothing,  by  breaking  it,  was  put  into  court 
and  fined  the  few  cents  the  idol  was  worth.  When  a  missionary 
preached  his  belief  that  they  would  all  become  Christians,  a  Brah- 
man jeeringly  replied  that  the  white  men  had  not  monej'  enough 
to  pay  for  so  many  converts.  When  a  missionary  found  a  stone 
idol  on  mission  land  and  struck  off  its  head  the  Hindus  declared 


336  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

that  vengeance  would  fall  upon  him.  It  happens  that  that  mis- 
sionary had  the  longest  service  of  any  one  ever  appointed  to  the 
mission.  Another  of  the  early  missionaries  was  touring  thirty-five 
miles  from  his  home  when  he  rested  under  a  tree  near  a  large 
village.  He  knelt  and  prayed  that  God  would  establish  his 
church  in  that  place,  and  now  the  spot  where  he  prayed  is  the  site 
of  a  prayer  house,  and  it  is  surrounded  by  the  houses  of  Christians. 
The  growth  of  the  mission  has  been  a  part  of  the  growth  of  the 
whole  town. 

The  basis  of  all  our  progress  is  the  Christian  community  of 
twenty  thousand  men,  women,  and  children  that  have  come  out 
from  more  than  thirty  castes  in  five  hundred  villages,  and  are  now 
the  living  witnesses  to  the  Hindu  and  Mohammedan  communities 
of  the  power  of  God  in  Christ  to  reconcile  the  world  to  himself. 
They  are  not  perfect,  but  to  multitudes  of  non-Christians  they 
are  the  only  witnesses  they  have.  Let  me  place  before  you,  the 
honored  representatives  of  the  churches,  the  pressing  needs  of 
our  people. 

First,  the  missionaries.  They  are  all  anxious  to  do  their 
best  work  and  improve  opportunities  of  reaching  the  millions  of 
people  about  them,  as  such  opportunities  arise.  For  this  they 
need  your  intelligent  and  prayerful  interest  and  effort.  Their 
best  work  demands  efficiency,  and  the  first  requisite  for  efficiency 
is  an  abundant  spiritual  life.  Will  you  not  ask  for  them  at  the 
throne  of  grace  the  abiding  presence  of  God's  Spirit,  opening  your 
own  hearts  to  his  power,  and  letting  him  give  you  the  heavenly 
vision  of  God's  love  for  all  his  children  in  his  offer  of  salvation? 
In  the  light  of  this  vision  your  prayers  will  be  availing  for  the 
quickening  of  the  missionary's  spiritual  life. 

(1)  The  missionary's  efficiency  can  only  be  maintained  by  com- 
radeship with  God's  people  at  home.  Are  we  not  all  comrades  in 
the  work  of  the  kingdom?  Is  not  the  heavenly  Father  bringing  all 
his  children  the  world  over  into  the  same  inheritance  of  knowledge 
and  civilization  and  spiritual  life?  Then  Avhen  vacancies  occur 
will  not  some  of  you  join  your  missionary  comrades  and  become 
missionaries  with  them?  The  field  and  the  work  of  the  mission  is 
divided  up  into  a  certain  number  of  stations  and  departments  for 
the  sake  of  the  most  effective  work,  and  each  section  is  a  unit. 
The  Madura  Mission  has  organized  ten  stations  and  five  separate 
departments  for  men,  and  seven  departments  for  women,  twenty- 
two  units  in   all,   thus  requiring  fifteen  men   and  seven  single 


MADURA    MISSION    AND    ITS    WORK.  337 

women.  At  present  there  are  on  the  field  only  twelve  men  and 
four  single  women,  sixteen  workers  for  twenty-two  units  of  work. 
That  means  excessive  work,  and  that  not  the  effective  work  that 
they  and  you  wish  to  have  done.  Are  there  no  comrades  ready 
now  to  come  and  fill  the  vacant  places? 

(2)  The  best  work  of  the  missionary  also  demands  means. 
Old  work,  proved  and  growing,  needs  to  be  maintained.  Said  a 
Hindu:  "  We  change,  and  our  work  is  frequently  given  up,  but 
these  missionaries  never  give  up,  and  their  work  goes  on  unceas- 
ingly." That  certainly  is  the  desire  of  every  missionary.  But 
after  a  twenty-five  per  cent  reduction  of  funds  for  a  dozen  years, 
and  then  a  further  ten  per  cent  reduction  last  year,  it  has  been 
impossible  to  keep  up  to  the  Hindu's  estimate. 

But  successful  work  under  God  creates  new  openings.  Shall 
we  not  have  the  means  available  to  enter  such  openings?  For 
instance,  a  street  full  of  poor  people  some  years  ago  asked  to  be 
organized  into  a  congregation,  in  a  village  where  no  Christian 
work  had  ever  been  established.  The  missionary  had  no  money 
to  support  a  catechist  there,  and  had  to  do  what  could  be  done  by 
occasional  visits  on  the  part  of  himself  and  his  fellow-workers. 
Oppressed  by  Hindu  masters,  ignorant  of  Bible  truth,  without 
any  regular  instruction,  they  have  remained  in  heathenism; 
whereas  a  resident  catechist  and  personal  influence  might  have 
led  them  into  the  truth.  Opportunities  are  continually  presenting 
themselves,  but  for  want  of  money  or  men  they  frequently  pass 
and  are  lost.  Such  opportunities  bring  joy  to  a  Christian's  heart, 
but  the  joy  is  turned  to  sorrow  when  they  are  lost. 

(3)  A  condition  for  the  missionary's  best  work  is  the  pres- 
ence of  a  trained  company  of  native  workers.  Thirty-three 
Americans,  twenty-two  for  the  units  of  work,  and  eleven  wives, 
can  personally  reach  but  few  of  the  two  and  a  half  millions  of  the 
people  of  the  mission's  district.  But  they  can  multiply  them- 
selves many  fold  by  training  and  sending  out  into  the  towns  and 
villages  Indian  Christian  workers.  These  catechists,  teachers, 
Bible  women,  and  medical  assistants  are  a  part  of  the  very  life 
of  the  country;  they  live  among  their  own  people,  sharing  their 
peculiar  joys  and  sorrows,  customs  and  habits,  prejudices  and 
modes  of  thinking.  But  by  their  Christian  principles  and  training 
they  become  channels  of  grace,  whereby  blind  eyes  are  opened, 
deaf  ears  are  unstopped,  new  life  is  imparted,  light  shines  in  dark 
places,    and  the   presence   of  the   heavenly    Father   is   revealed 


338  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 

through  an  atmosphere  of  love  and  compassion.  We  thank  the 
Lord  for  the  five  hundred  fellow- workers  now  cooperating  with  the 
missionaries.  Their  numbers  should  be  doubled,  but  many  of 
them  have  not  the  training  necessary  for  the  work,  and  our  train- 
ing schools  should  be  kept  up  to  a  high  standard  that  all  increase 
of  numbers  should  mean  an  increase  of  well-trained  and  proved 
workers. 

Second,  the  Christian  community.  The  Christian  community 
backs  up  this  plea  of  the  missionaries,  that  they  may  be  guided 
and  taught  with  a  view  to  fitting  them  to  be  instruments  in 
God's  hand  of  turning  their  countrymen  to  the  true  God.  They 
have  been  gathered  out  of  thirty  different  castes  mutually  exclu- 
sive of  one  another,  with  different  tastes  and  customs,  and  their 
union  is  in  Christ  rather  than  in  the  bond  of  relationship. 

A  Tamil  proverb  says,  "  Will  not  the  vine  sustain  its  own  fruit?  " 
The  American  Board  is  the  vine  and  the  missions  are  its  fruit. 
Let  me  show  you  how  it  has  been  able  to  sustain  the  general  work 
of  our  mission  this  year.  It  has  given  $14,000,  and  this  sum  has 
been  divided  up  as  follows:  We  have  150  catechists  to  work  and 
preach  among  the  congregations,  and  for  them  we  need  an  average 
sum  of  $50  each  per  year.  That  would  require  $7,500.  We 
receive  $5,500,  or  enough  for  110,  leaving  40  unprovided  for  and 
a  deficiency  of  $2,000.  There  are  150  teachers  in  the  primary 
schools  all  over  the  district.  We  aim  to  get  fees  enough  to 
support  one  third,  or  50,  of  them.  But  the  remaining  100  need 
$5,000.  We  get  $2,300,  which  provides  for  46  out  of  the  100,  and 
leaves  54  unprovided  for,  with  a  deficiency  of  $2,700. 

For  the  training  of  our  workers  we  have  three  important  insti- 
tutions, a  college,  a  normal  training  school,  and  a  theological 
seminary.  For  these  we  receive  $2,500.  Our  fees  amount  to 
another  $2,500,  and  government  aid  sometimes  amounts  to  a 
similar  sum.  But  $7,500  is  small  enough  for  either  one.  We 
should  at  least  have  $600  more  for  the  three.  There  are  700 
buildings  in  use  for  the  accommodation  of  the  workers  and 
worshipers,  worth  each  from  $15  to  $1,500.  For  the  repair  and 
rebuilding  of  these  we  receive  $700,  or  an  average  of  $1  to  a 
building.  For  these  we  need  $700  more;  surely  $2  to  a  building 
is  moderate. 

There  are  20  medical  agents  requiring  $1,000;  we  receive  $350. 
This  provides  for  7,  and  we  are  trying  to  support  the  remaining 
13  by  other  means.     For  our  evangelistic  efforts  we  have  200 


MADURA    MISSION"    AND    ITS    WORK.  339 

workers  to  work  among  2,500,000  people,  and  the  amount  received 
is  $1,300,  or  $6.50  on  an  average  for  each  worker  for  a  year.  This 
leaves  a  remainder  of  $1,350  to  be  divided  between  the  printing 
press  that  publishes  each  year  three  papers  a  month,  half  a  million 
pages  in  English,  and  a  million  pages  in  Tamil;  taxes  that  are  due 
to  the  state;  and  office  expenses  connected  with  the  treasury  and 
other  business  of  the  mission. 
Tabulated,  these  items  are  as  follows: 

Allotment.         Deficit. 

150  catechists $5,500         $2,000 

100  teachers 2,300           2,700 

College,  seminary,  and  training  school     .    .  2,500               600 

700  buildings 700               700 

20  medical  agents 350 

Evangelistic  work  among  2,500,000      .    .    .  1,300 

Press,  taxes,  office  expenses 1,350 

Total $14,000         $6,000 

For  our  present  work  we  need  at  least  $20,000  per  year. 

The  progress  of  the  work  is  illustrated  by  the  history  of  many  a 
family.  Years  ago  a  Bible  reader  of  very  meager  education,  but 
something  of  a  preacher  and  singer,  received  two  dollars  a  month 
wages.  He  brought  up  his  sons  in  a  Christian  way,  and  sent  three 
of  them  to  the  mission  boarding  school.  He  could  not  teach  them 
much  himself,  but  he  could  impart  to  them  his  spirit  of  consecra- 
tion to  the  Lord  Jesus.  The  eldest,  who  did  not  study  beyond  the 
village  school,  is  an  intelligent  layman  among  the  Christians  of  the 
village,  another  son  is  an  ordained  pastor  and  an  earnest  evangel- 
istic preacher,  another  is  a  teacher  in  a  neighboring  mission,  and 
the  youngest  is  an  instructor  in  the  theological  seminary,  and  also 
a  leader  in  important  evangelistic  movements.  All  the  sons  have 
their  father's  musical  gift  and  have  done  much  for  Christian  song. 
The  theological  instructor  has  been  largely  instrumental  in  the 
establishment  of  a  home  mission  by  the  Madura  Christians  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  district.  They  are  supporting  an  ordained 
preacher,  an  evangelist,  and  a  teacher  in  a  populous  region  where 
there  is  no  other  Christian  work.  You  are  helping  these  Christians 
by  your  prayers  and  offerings,  and  the}''  in  turn  are  working  for 
their  countrymen. 

Third,   the  community   at  large.      I    must    bring   before    you 
some  of  the  needs  of  the  community  at  large.     There  is  need  of 


340  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

more  instruction  in  Bible  truth  for  all  classes  of  the  community. 
Let  me  tell  you  of  certain  homes.  In  one,  the  father  is  convinced 
of  his  need  of  Christ,  and  often  attends  a  little  gathering  of  Chris- 
tians for  prayer,  asking  that  his  own  needs  may  be  remembered. 
His  daughter  is  a  child  widow,  under  the  influence  of  Hindu 
relatives  who  are  likely  to  lead  her  astray,  and  the  great  desire 
of  his  heart  is  to  get  his  daughter  to  his  own  home  and  put  her 
into  a  Christian  school.  But  the  daughter  and  the  rest  of  the 
family  care  not  for  Christian  life.     They  are  Brahmans. 

In  another  home  the  wife  has  learned  about  Christ,  and  for  a 
long  time  tried  to  give  up  the  worship  of  idols  in  her  own  home. 
Her  husband  beat  her  and  abused  her,  so  that  she  ran  away  to 
the  missionary  lady,  and  made  known  her  condition.  The  storm 
of  resentment  raised  by  this  act  was  such  that  she  soon  went  back 
to  her  own  relatives  and  then  to  her  husband;  and  now  she  is 
not  allowed  to  see  any  Christians  or  show  any  indication  of  being 
a  Christian. 

Another  home  is  that  of  a  young  man  who  broke  his  caste  and 
declared  himself  to  be  a  Christian,  but  was  sent  to  the  house  of 
relatives  and  kept  under  guard,  until  he  was  persuaded  to  marry 
a  girl  of  the  family,  and  now  has  given  up  his  thought  of  being  a 
Christian.  Still  another  is  that  of  a  Mohammedan  who  has  more 
than  one  wife.  The  second  has  left  his  home  and  gone  to  a  distant 
place,  where  she  has  been  baptized,  knowing  no  other  way  of 
living  a  Christian  life. 

In  each  of  these  homes  there  is  a  one-sidedness  of  influence. 
Could  the  children  of  that  father,  and  the  husbands  of  those  two 
wives,  and  the  parents  of  that  young  man,  have  been  brought 
under  Christian  influence,  they  would  have  helped  and  not 
hindered  the  several  members  of  the  families  who  wished  to  be 
Christians.     Literally,  a  man's  foes  are  those  of  his  own  household. 

This  condition  of  society  is  inevitable  in  the  beginning  of 
Christian  work,  but  as  more  children  are  taught  the  truth  in 
school,  and  as  more  men  are  brought  under  its  influence,  through 
preaching  and  personal  work,  and  as  more  women  are  taught  by 
the  Bible  women,  these  one-sided  conditions  will  diminish.  You 
are  asked,  therefore,  by  all  who  suffer  from  the  hostility  of  their 
own  families,  to  maintain  for  the  whole  community  the  great 
evangelical  departments  of  mission  work,  teaching,  preaching, 
and  Bible  reading  in  the  homes. 

Along  the  shores  of  India  and  Ceylon  there  are  pearls  in  the 


MADURA    MISSION    AND   ITS    WORK.  341 

oysters  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  The  Jesuits  tell  us  that  in  the 
seventeenth  century  divers  used  to  go  down  without  any  diving 
suits  and  gather  as  many  oysters  as  they  could  while  holding  their 
breath.  Sometimes  they  would  quarrel  and  stab  each  other 
under  water.  If  we  missionaries  quarreled  with  each  other,  we 
should  feel  as  if  we  were  turning  from  the  work  of  gathering  pearls 
to  that  of  strife  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  A  Tamil  legend  says 
that  once  the  god  Siva  sent  a  flood  to  overwhelm  the  city  of  Madura. 
The  king  thereupon  ordered  every  one  out  to  dam  up  the  river,  a 
certain  section  of  the  embankment  being  assigned  to  each  man 
and  woman.  One  old  woman  selling  cakes  was  behindhand  in 
the  building  of  her  section  of  the  dam,  when  Siva  himself  assumed 
the  form  of  a  coolie  and  helped  her.  The  king  saw  the  back- 
wardness of  the  work  and  struck  the  coolie,  not  knowing  that  he 
was  the  god.  But  that  blow  was  felt  by  every  man  and  woman 
in  the  world.  Does  not  this  legend  illustrate  the  univesrality  of 
our  heavenly  Father's  purposes  and  providence?  His  plans  are 
for  every  soul  of  every  nation,  and  we  can  work  writh  him  only 
on  the  basis  of  plans  that  reach  out  to  the  redemption  of  all  man- 
kind. 

A  Tamil  poet  says,  "  Liberality  grows  in  the  flower-bed  of 
abundance."  We  have  been  sustained  and  cheered  by  your 
liberality  out  of  the  abundance  of  your  love.  May  you  have  the 
same  joy  in  the  results  that  is  given  to  those  on  the  field. 

Hear  the.  words  of  a  great  Indian  administrator,  ruler  of  eighty 
millions  of  people  in  the  presidency  of  Bengal,  Sir  Andrew  Fraser, 
to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland: 
"  I  have  examined  the  matter  carefully  in  all  parts  of  India,  and 
I  rejoice  in  the  results  of  mission  woik.  I  am  a  Christian,  I  believe 
in  the  Lord  Jesus.  I  believe  in  the  religion  of  Christ,  and  I 
believe  that  the  best  thing  that  the  people  of  this  country  can 
carry  to  the  people  of  the  far  ends  of  the  earth  ...  is  the  gospel 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 


342  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 


THE  BEAUTY  OF  SERVICE. 
Rev.  Robert  Ernest  Hume. 

As  president  of  the  Board,  you,  Mr.  Capen,  and  as  secretary, 
you,  Dr.  Strong,  have  signed  and  delivered  to  me  a  commission 
of  appointment  from  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions  as  a  missionary  to  its  Marathi  Mission.  jr,., 

But,  above  this,  fathers  and  brethren,  I  rejoice  that  I  am 
Robert  Ernest  Hume,  an  apostle  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  the 
will  of  God,  to  the  people  of  India. 

Little  did  I  suppose,  before  entering  Yale,  that  I  should  ever 
stand  thus  before  the  American  Board,  eager  to  go  out  to  India 
for  a  life  service  as  a  Christian  missionary.  Indeed,  I  had  defi- 
nitely supposed  that  our  family  had  already  rendered  its  full  share 
of  service  to  that  land.  My  mother,  my  brother,  my  grandmother 
were  buried  under  the  parched  ground  of  that  tropic  sun.  My 
grandfather,  exhausted  by  fifteen  years  of  unremitting  labor,  never 
finished  his  journey  back  to  this  homeland,  but  a  wave  of  Indian 
Ocean  rolls  above  his  grave.  With  my  father,  an  uncle,  and  a 
deceased  aunt  also  missionaries  to  India,  I  considered  that  the 
family  had  already  made  sufficient  sacrifice  for  the  missionary 
cause.  Sacrifice!  Woefully  meager  was  that  conception  of  sacri- 
fice —  a  reluctant  giving  up  of  one's  own  desires  from  a  sense  of 
duty!  When,  however,  I  saw  that  "  sacrifice,"  as  the  very  deri- 
vation of  the  word  suggests,  means  "  a  making  sacred,"  "  a  ren- 
dering holy,"  that  the  whole-hearted  giving  of  one's  own  life  to 
the  purpose  of  God  is  the  only  method  of  receiving  his  great  divine 
life,  especially  when  I  felt  the  yearning  of  the  loving  Father's  heart 
desiring  his  own  holy,  self-giving  life  for  me  and  the  greatest 
possible  help  to  his  other  children,  then  I  sought  his  will  instead 
of  my  own  selfish  ambitions,  and  he  made  it  plain  that  the  greatest 
satisfaction  of  life,  both  to  him  and  to  me  and  to  all  others,  would 
come  from  continuing  very  closely  the  life-work  of  Jesus  in  service 
to  the  pitifully  needy  people  of  India.  Ever  since  that  enlighten- 
ment and  decision  in  freshman  year  in  college,  it  has  been  my 
highest  and  most  joyous  purpose  to  carry  the  Father's  good  news 
and  life  to  his  ignorantly  groping  children,  my  brothers  and  sisters, 
in  India. 


THE  BEAUTY  OF  SERVICE.  343 

So  it  is  an  abounding  joy  to  expect  that  a  few  months  hence  my 
God-given  helpmeet  and  I  may  be  in  India  as  representatives  of 
our  great,  good  Father,  and  your  representatives,  too,  friends  of 
the  American  Board. 

Yet,  while  the  joy  of  this  missionary  purpose  increases,  the 
sense  of  its  responsibility  also  increases.  We  are  glad,  exceed- 
ingly glad,  to  go  and  do  this  work  for  our  Father  and  for  you.  But 
we  can  hardly  do  it  merely  for  you;  we  crave  to  do  it  with  you. 
Of  all  the  things  we  have  heard  at  this  inspiring  meeting  of  the 
Board  and  elsewhere,  what  has  helped  us  the  most,  and  what  in  the 
future  will  help  us  the  most,  is  the  assurance  that  friends,  known 
and  unknown,  are  praying  for  us.  Friends,  I  beg  that  when  you 
light  your  lights  at  the  coming  of  darkness  you  give  a  loving 
thought  to  those  of  your  brothers  and  sisters  who  will  see  the  sun 
before  you  shall  see  it  again,  but  who  have  not  seen  the  brightness 
and  joy  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness.  Friends,  I  beg  that  if  any 
of  you  lie  sleepless  during  the  hours  of  the  night,  you  pray  that 
just  then  we  on  the  other  side  of  the  world  may  be  very  much  alert 
to  the  will  of  the  loving  Father  and  to  the  needs  of  the  people  over 
there  whom  we  are  trying  to  serve.  Friends,  for  us  individually, 
and  every  other  missionary,  I  speak;  we  crave  your  prayers,  that 
we  may  be  so  loving,  so  unselfish,  so  holy,  so  sensible,  so  devoted, 
so  Christlike,  that  through  our  lives  and  service  many,  many  of 
God's  children  may  come  to  trust  and  respond  to  the  loving,  holy 
Father,  and  that  Christ's  work  for  the  world  may  indeed  be  fully 
accomplished. 

Surely,  the  motto  for  each  one  of  us,  and  for  this  next  century 
of  American  foreign  missions,  is  what  has  already  been  suggested. 
"We  can!"  We  —  yes,  you  and  I  and  other  Christians,  and 
more  than  those;  we,  the  great  God,  and  you  and  I  and  other 
Christians.  And  then,  with  complete  devotion,  with  the  utter 
elimination  of  any  hint  of  proviso  or  condition,  "  We  will!  " 


344  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

CHINA  AWAKENING. 

Rev.  James  H.  Roberts,  of  the  North  China  Mission. 

The  haystack  centenary  almost  coincides  with  China's  cen- 
tenary. Next  April,  in  Shanghai,  will  be  held  the  Centennial 
Missionary  Conference,  celebrating  the  arrival  of  the  first  Prot- 
estant missionary  in  China.  Rejoicing  over  a  century  of  foreign 
missions,  let  us  remember  Robert  Morrison  and  China.  His  one 
convert  has  become  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  besides  a 
great  multitude  who  have  joined  the  Church  Triumphant. 

That  China  is  awakening  is  well  known,  but  who  can  fully 
comprehend  the  fact,  or  imagine  its  great  results?  The  nation 
most  wealthy  in  human  life,  becoming  more  intelligent  and  free, 
will  be  a  powerful  factor  in  the  new  world  surrounding  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  Whether  it  shall  become  Christian  or  agnostic  is  the 
problem  of  our  time.  Our  duty  and  interest  are  clear.  Convert 
China,  bring  all  its  forces  to  act  in  obedience  in  Christ,  and  the 
speedy  conversion  of  the  world  will  follow. 

"  Wherefore  he  saith,  Awake,  thou  that  sleepest,  and  arise  from 
the  dead,  and  Christ  shall  shine  upon  thee." 

Asleep  in  ignorance,  the  masses  illiterate,  and  the  ruling  class 
educated  chiefly  in  narrow  lines  of  ancient  lore;  asleep  in  sin, 
violating  their  own  consciences,  grieving  their  heavenly  Father, 
degraded  by  vice,  and  enslaved  by  superstitions;  asleep  in  self- 
conceit,  dreaming  that  their  sages  are  the  only  lights  in  the  moral 
firmament,  and  that  their  emperor  rules  the  entire  world;  behold 
China,  a  giant,  —  to  be  pitied  for  his  infirmities,  yet  to  be 
admired  for  his  capabilities;  to  be  feared,  in  case  his  powers  should 
be  misdirected;  to  be  loved  for  Christ's  sake,  for  the  good  that  he 
is,  and  for  the  good  that  he  may  become;  and,  above  all,  to  be 
helped  by  our  sympathy  and  prayers  and  contributions,  —  this 
is  the  sight  set  before  our  eyes.  The  giant  has  been  wakened  by 
a  series  of  commotions  and  by  the  voices  of  missionaries,  mer- 
chants, and  diplomats.  He  is  rubbing  his  eyes,  trying  to  adjust 
himself  to  his  newly  discovered  environment.  The  whole  world  is 
wondering  what  he  will  do,  when  fully  awake.  Shall  the  waking  be 
moral,  as  well  as  intellectual?  Shall  his  strength  be  enlisted  to 
fight  the  battles  of  Jehovah?  Or  shall  it  be  spent  only  in  material 
toil,  grinding  corn  for  the  Philistines?     If  we  can  help  him  with  the 


CHINA    A.WAKENING.  345 

outstretched  hand  of  Christian  brotherhood,  by  heroic  going  and 
heroic  giving,  we  shall  see  China  "  arise  from  the  dead,"  and 
receive  a  light  from  Christ,  which  he  will  hold  aloft  like  the  Statue 
of  Liberty,  to  enlighten  the  world. 

Encouraged  by  Japan's  success,  China  has  a  new  ambition, —  to 
become  strong  and  independent.  The  first  result  of  a  recovered 
self-respect  was  the  boycott  of  American  goods  as  a  protest 
against  unjust  treatment.  "  China  for  the  Chinese,"  and  "  Imi- 
tate Japan,"  are  the  favorite  watchwords.  The  nation  does  not 
want  foreigners  to  seize  its  ports,  dominate  its  policy,  determine 
its  tariff,  nor  exploit  its  mineral  wealth.  Railroads  are  becoming 
popular,  but  must  be  built  by  Chinese.  Imitating  Japan,  they 
will  learn  what  they  can  from  foreign  teachers,  and  then  dispense 
with  them.  The}'  desire  only  secular  education,  but  we  wish  to 
give  them  Christian  education,  that  the  light  of  the  glory  of 
Christ  may  dawn  upon  them. 

This  transitional  period  in  Chinese  history  is  most  impressive. 
Hitherto  the  nation  has  appeared  immovable  as  the  pyramids, 
enigmatical  as  the  sphinx;  now  agitation,  perplexity,  and  a  desire 
to  reform  are  seen.  The  rulers  in  these  kaleidoscopic  times 
hardly  know  how  to  rule.  The  new  education  confounds  the 
literary  class,  so  that  most  of  the  teachers  cannot  teach.  A  large 
part  of  the  brain  of  the  nation  cannot  perform  its  function.  The 
new  coinage  confuses  business.  Temples  and  their  endowments 
are  seized  by  the  government  for  use  as  public  schools.  Enor- 
mous taxes  are  being  levied  for  these  schools,  for  the  new  army, 
and  for  the  foreign  indemnities.  The  opportunity  to  enrich  them- 
selves is  not  neglected  by  the  officials.  The  cost  of  living  increases, 
and  the  poor  people  are  at  their  wits'  end.  Meantime  foreign 
vices  are  invading  China  to  a  fearful  extent.  Do  not  these  facts 
call  for  our  sympathy,  and  make  necessary  a  liberal  policy  in 
equipping  our  Chinese  missions?  To  do  this  we  must  each  do 
his  part,  and  strive  still  more  earnestly  to  obtain  a  contribution 
from  every  church,  and  from  each  member  of  every  church. 
Here  are  several  encouraging  facts:  First,  an  imperial  edict 
authorizes  the  Christian  Sabbath  as  a  legal  holiday  throughout  the 
empire.  Secondly,  a  proclamation  from  the  viceroy  of  Central 
China  orders  that  the  Bible  shall  be  studied  in  the  public  schools 
in  all  of  his  wide  domain.  Thirdly,  the  Educational  Union  in 
North  China  unites  the  educational  work  of  the  various  missions 
on    an    interdenominational  basis.     Fourthly,  the  Federation  of 


346  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

Churches  is  progressing,  the  final  outcome  of  which  doubtless  will 
be,  that  denominational  differences  will  be  set  aside,  the  native 
Christians  becoming  one  National  Church  of  Christ  in  China. 

Our  hopes  are  encouraged  by  Japan's  success  in  adopting  foreign 
learning.  The  full  awakening  of  the  larger  nation  may  be  a  long 
process,  because  such  great  numbers  of  people  must  be  educated, 
but  the  mental  quickening  will  have  cumulative  force;  and,  as 
the  Renaissance  in  Europe  was  followed  by  the  Reformation,  so 
the  present  intellectual  awakening  in  China  will  be  followed  by  a 
moral  regeneration,  bringing  immeasurable  benefits  to  all  mankind. 

The  Chinese  are  our  brothers,  and  the  two  hundred  millions  of 
Chinese  women  are  our  sisters.  Christ  will  shine  upon  them. 
His  gospel  is  being  made  known  to  them  every  night  while  we 
sleep.  At  present  in  North  China  there  is  urgent  need  of  more 
workers.  What  grander  field  is  there  in  the  whole  world  in  which 
to  serve  God  and  our  fellow-men?  We  at  home  must  sustain, 
with  prayer  and  love  and  heroic  giving,  the  missionaries  whom 
we  send  or  have  sent  from  our  own  homes  and  churches.  We 
must  cultivate  deeper  spiritual  life  in  our  own  hearts  and  a  higher 
sense  of  our  privileges  and  duties,  and  say  to  our  Lord:  "  Take 
me,  and  all  that  I  have,  to  use  for  thy  glory.  Here  am  I,  send  me; 
or  at  least  send  my  offerings  as  a  sweet  incense  of  thanksgiving 
for  thy  dying  love." 


CLOSING     ADDRESSES.  347 


CLOSING  ADDRESSES. 


FOR  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  ENTERTAINMENT. 
Mr.  Clinton  Q.  Richmond,  of  North  Adams. 

Mr.  President,  Corporate  Members,  and  Friends  of  the  Missionary 
Cause:  I  remember  reading  that  in  France,  where  dining  and 
cooking  are  fine  arts,  when  a  chef  has  prepared  a  particularly 
fine  dish,  the  guests  sometimes  carry  him  around  the  table 
on  their  shoulders.  I  think  that  that  may  be  true,  but  I  think 
that  this  is  the  first  time  that  an  ovation  has  been  given  to  the 
man  who  has  simply  given  out  the  rooms.  In  the  past  few 
weeks  I  have  had  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  difficulties  that 
must  have  attended  the  efforts  of  the  committee  in  olden  times 
which  was  charged  with  the  "  seating  of  the  meeting-house,"  but 
I  must  say  that  your  great  good  nature  has  prevented  any  of 
the  heart-burnings  which  I  am  told  followed  those  occasions. 

We  have  been  very  glad  to  welcome  you  to  Berkshire,  and  we 
have  given  you  the  best  that  we  have.  We  have  welcomed  you 
to  our  hearts  and  to  our  homes.  We  have  even  thrown  in  a  few 
samples  of  Berkshire  weather,  including  a  short  snow-squall,  so 
that  you  could  tell  just  what  we  enjoy  here.  We  are  very  sorry 
to  part  with  you.  We  should  like  to  annex  just  such  a  body  of 
representative  people  to  the  population  of  North  Adams.  We 
hope  the  time  will  come  when  you  will  come  again.  I  can  assure 
you  that  the  present  committee  will  not  serve  at  the  next  cen- 
tennial, but,  knowing  North  Adams  and  Berkshire  as  I  do,  I  am 
sure  you  will  find  people  here  just  as  ready  to  welcome  the  American 
Board  one  hundred  years  from  now.  I  can  only  thank  you  for 
this  token  of  your  appreciation,  and  assure  you  that  it  has  been  a 
pleasure  to  have  you  here,  and  we  trust  that  the  meetings  have 
been  entirely  satisfactory  and  an  inspiration  to  you  all. 


348  THE  HAYSTACK  CENTENNIAL. 


FOR  THE  METHODIST  CHURCH. 

Rev.  W.   E.  Thompson, 
Pastor  of  the  Methodist  Church,  North  Adams. 

Mr.  President  and  Members  of  the  American  Board:  In  behalf 
of  the  board  of  trustees,  and  as  pastor  of  this  church,  I  assure  you 
that  it  has  been  a  great  pleasure  for  us  to  extend  to  you,  through 
your  local  committee,  the  use  of  this  church  building  in  which  to 
hold  some  of  the  services  of  this  great  convention. 

We,  as  Methodists,  rejoice  with  you  because  of  the  wonderful 
progress  and  the  great  achievements  that  have  been  brought 
about  in  the  work  of  missions  in  the  last  one  hundred  years,  and 
congratulate  you  on  the  splendid  work  that  has  been  done  by  the 
American  Board  and  its  representatives  in  various  mission  fields. 
The  influence  of  this  great  convention  cannot  but  be  world-wide, 
and  we  congratulate  ourselves  on  having  had  an  opportunity  to 
come  into  such  close  relations  with  it.  Among  other  things  I 
have  been  impressed  by  the  manifest  willingness  and  desire  of  your 
representatives  for  a  federation  of  different  denominations  into 
one  united  work  in  the  foreign  field.  In  that  desire  I  share  with 
all  my  heart. 

For  many  years,  after  the  bloody  battles  of  our  Civil  War  were 
ended,  there  still  existed  an  invisible  but  actual  line  of  separation 
between  the  people  of  the  North  and  those  of  the  South,  that 
made  impossible  that  unity  of  feeling  and  purpose  necessary  for 
the  nation's  greatest  strength  and  power.  Though  the  influences 
of  commercial  and  social  relations  and  religious  work  tended  to 
make  this  dividing  line  less  noticeable,  it  continued  to  exist, 
until  that  time  when,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  there  came  a  call 
for  the  American  people  to  take  up  arms  and  go  forth  to  war  that 
they  might  bring  liberty,  and,  eventually,  civilization,  education, 
self-government,  and  Christianity  to  the  oppressed  people  of  the 
islands  of  the  sea. 

Then  those  who  had  worn  the  blue  and  those  who  had  worn  the 
gray  marched  forth  side  by  side,  with  one  common  purpose  and 
under  one  common  flag,  —  that  noble  emblem  of  liberty  and 
justice,  the  stars  and  stripes,  —  and  when  those  conquering  heroes 
came  marching  home  to  celebrate  the  glorious  victories  which 
God  gave  them  both  on  land  and  sea,  both  they  and  the  people 


FOR   THE    METHODIST   CHURCH.  349 

whom  they  represented  were  so  cemented  together  by  the  bonds  of 
their  common  sacrifices  and  their  common  victories  that  they 
could  sing  as  we  love  now  to  sing: 

"  There  is  no  North  —  no  South  —  no  East  —  no  West  — 
But  one  great  land  with  freedom  blest," 

and  one  great  united  people,  with  a  mind  to  be  one  great  nation, 
and  to  make  that  nation  the  greatest  in  the  world. 

There  have  been  times  when  the  citizens  of  the  heavenly  king- 
dom, divided  into  different  denominations  here  on  earth,  have 
been  at  variance  and  open  strife  among  themselves.  Thank  God 
that  such  things  as  that  have  so  largely  passed  away.  There  are, 
however,  some  lines  of  separation  which,  while  they  are  becoming 
less  and  less  distinct  because  of  modified  theology,  and  federation 
of  work  and  interests  among  the  churches,  still  do  exist,  and 
sometimes  cause  us  to  feel  that  we  are  not  as  nearly  one  as  we 
ought  to  be.  Mr.  President  and  brethren,  through  the  messages 
and  influence  of  this  convention  there  has  come  to  the  Christian 
church  of  America,  as  never  before,  the  call  to  "  go  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  gospel  unto  every  creature."  May  God 
grant  that  the  members  of  your  church  and  the  members  of  my 
church  and  the  members  of  every  other  church  that  loves  and 
exalts  our  Christ  may  answer  to  this  call,  and  shoulder  to  shoul- 
der, in  one  unbroken  line  of  battle,  under  one  common  banner, 
the  blood-stained  banner  of  the  cross,  and  with  one  all  consum- 
ing purpose  for  the  glory  of  God  and  salvation  of  all  for  whom 
Christ  died,  march  on  together  to  the  full  and  speedy  conquest  of 
the  whole  wide  world  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  our  common 
Lord  and  Saviour. 


350  THE    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 


FOR  THE  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCHES  OF  NORTH 
ADAMS  AND  WILLIAMSTOWN. 

Rev.   Theodore   E.   Busfield,   D.D., 
Pastor  of  the  North  Adams  Congregational  Church. 

President  Capen,  Fathers  and  Brethren:  The  hour  has  come  for 
speeding  the  parting  guests.  I  regret  that  I  must  speak  this  word 
of  farewell  alone,  for  my  good  Brother  Clayton,  of  Williamstown,  is 
detained  because  of  a  trouble  with  his  eyes.  So  what  I  say,  I  say 
not  simply  for  my  own  church,  but  also  for  him  and  for  his  church. 
The  people  of  Williamstown  and  of  North  Adams  have  labored 
together  in  unity  and  concord  in  anticipation  of  your  coming,  and 
together  we  have  shared  the  blessing  of  your  presence.  We  have 
received  a  rich  reward  in  having  you  in  our  midst,  in  our  city,  and 
in  our  homes.  So  much,  in  fact,  have  we  enjoyed  this,  that  we 
here  and  now  extend  to  you  a  unanimous  and  most  hearty  invi- 
tation to  celebrate  the  next  centennial  of  the  haystack  in  our  city 
and  in  Williamstown. 

These  days  have  been  days  upon  the  mountain  tops.  Our 
hearts  have  been  deeply  moved,  and  our  spirits  have  been  uplifted. 
These  have  indeed  been  great  meetings.  Many  elements  have 
conspired  to  make  them  great.  There  has  been  the  inspiration  of 
numbers;  there  has  been  the  wise  use  of  noble  sentiment.  As  we 
sat  the  other  afternoon  in  the  beautiful  sunshine  after  the  rain  in 
Mission  Park,  under  the  same  skies  and  looking  upon  the  same  scenes 
and  talking  upon  the  same  themes  as  those  young  men  one  hun- 
dred years  ago,  no  heart  could  fail  to  be  stirred  to  its  very  depths. 
We  have  had  a  splendid  program.  All  of  the  meetings  have 
rung  true.  The  prayers  and  the  addresses  from  beginning  to  end 
have  all  been  inspirational.  We  have  had  a  fine  report  brought 
to  our  notice  by  the  officers  of  the  Board.  We  have  been  told 
of  the  greatest  contributions  in  the  entire  history  of  this  great 
organization,  and  the  lifting  of  the  burdensome  debt.  The 
notable  thank-offering,  the  other  afternoon,  filled  us  with  grati- 
tude. All  these  things  have  labored  together  to  make  these  meet- 
ings exceptional  for  influence  and  interest. 

And  these  meetings  have  been  in  a  great  cause  and  for  a  great 
work.     One  of  the  speakers,  the  other  morning,  in  the  splendid 


FOR    THE    CONGREGATIONAL   CHURCHES.  351 

chapel  a1  Williamstown,  —  I  think  il  was  1 'resident  Tucker, — 
told  us,  what  we  all  know  ,  that  we  are  becoming  too  much  occupied 
with  the  trivial  and  with  the  commonplace  in  life;  but  there  has 
been  nothing  commonplace  and  nothing  trivial  in  this  great  work, 
the  great  work  of  evangelizing  the  whole  world  and  bringing  it  to 
the  feet  of  our  Master.  This  work  is  a  work  which  has  carried 
healing  and  help  and  light  and  life  and  salvation  to  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  individuals.  It  is  a  work  which  is  uplifting 
and  civilizing  nations,  and  work  also  which  is  making  the  churches 
at  home  more  efficient.  We  all  believe  that  the  American  Board 
is  the  most  valuable  asset  of  Congregationalism.  It  is  the  expres- 
sion of  the  loftiest  and  the  most  Christian  altruism,  and  we  are  to 
support  with  ever-increasing  interest  and  efficiency  the  Board  in 
its  world-wide  work  for  Christ. 

This  great  work,  as  it  has  been  presented  so  finely  and  so  sweetly 
and  so  beautifully,  by  men  and  women  from  the  home  field  and 
from  the  foreign  field,  has  revealed  to  us  the  great  things  that  still 
confront  us.  The  fields  abroad  are  ripe  for  the  harvesters,  but 
the  laborers  are  few.  Missionaries  are  breaking  down;  missions 
are  in  need  of  reenforcement;  hundreds  of  Macedonian  men  are 
uttering  the  old  Macedonian  cry,  "  Come  over  and  help  us."  And 
then,  great  as  are  the  needs  across  the  seas,  how  great  are  the 
needs  of  the  Board  right  here,  because  of  the  apathy  and  the 
indifference  and  the  unconcern  and  the  lack  of  missionary  spirit 
on  the  part  of  American  Christians.  It  has  seemed  to  me,  as  I 
have  sat  here  and  listened  to  the  reports,  as  if  the  executive  force 
of  the  Board  was  like  two  men,  —  the  foreign  secretary  facing  the 
needs  upon  the  foreign  fields,  and  the  home  secretary  facing  the 
great  needs  caused  by  apathy  upon  the  home  field,  and  they 
stand  back  to  back  endeavoring  to  awaken  Christians  to  satisfy 
these  needs  in  the  great  wide  world.  We  have  here  on  the  plat- 
form those  who  are  to  reenforce  the  exertions  of  Dr.  Barton,  and 
it  is  for  us  all,  pastors  and  others,  to  labor  with  more  of  zeal  and 
with  more  of  Christian  spirit  that  we  may  second  our  home  secre- 
tary, Dr.  Patton,  in  his  great  work. 

We  have  had  great  meetings,  in  the  interests  of  a  great  work, 
which  have  revealed  to  us  great  needs,  and  all  this  has  been  for  a 
great  Master.  It  has  been  gratifying  indeed  to  observe  that  from 
the  very  first  note  of  this  anniversary  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has 
been  exalted.  We  have  learned  of  an  altered  emphasis,  but  we 
have  not  learned  of  a  lessened  emphasis,  on  the  motives  for  foreign 


352  THE    HAYSTACK    CENTENNIAL. 

missions.  We  have  had  business  transacted  here,  but  there  has 
been  a  beautiful  blending  of  business  with  spirituality.  Your 
representatives  have  not  been  slothful  in  business,  and  they  have 
been  fervent  in  spirit,  serving  the  Lord.  The  great,  magnificent, 
everlasting  realities  of  the  spiritual  world  have  been  emphasized 
on  this  platform,  and  it  has  all  been  done  for  the  sake  and  for  the 
glory  of  our  Master. 

It  has  been  exceedingly  gratifying  to  learn  also  of  great  results. 
There  have  been  numerous  and  notable  victories.  When  we  think 
of  the  great  achievements  in  medical  missions,  when  we  think  of 
the  vast  output  of  the  schools,  the  colleges,  and  the  theological 
seminaries  of  the  Board,  when  wTe  think  of  the  thousands  that  have 
been  won  to  the  new  life  which  is  divine,  when  we  think  of  the 
leaven  which  is  working  here  and  there  in  the  twenty  missions  of 
the  Board  and  leavening  communities  and  countries  with  Chris- 
tian truth,  we  are  impressed  with  the  large  results  of  almost  one 
hundred  years  of  effort.  The  other  afternoon,  and  at  other  times 
since,  as  we  have  looked  upon  these  men  who  have  come  here  in 
various  costumes  and  from  different  climes,  and  who  have  told 
with  gratitude  in  heart  and  voice  of  the  great  work  which  the 
Board  has  done  for  them  and  for  others,  we  have  had  before  us  the 
visible  evidences  of  the  success  which  our  great  organization,  under 
God,  has  achieved. 

And  now  the  time  has  come  for  saying  farewell,  and  I  say  it  with 
the  hope  and  with  the  prayer  that  you  who  go  and  we  who  remain 
may  all  labor  together  as  fellow-workers  with  God,  as  we  have 
never  labored  before,  with  utmost  faith  and  hope  and  love,  with 
utmost  courage,  and  with  the  abiding  presence  of  Him  who  hath 
all  power  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  that  we  may  spread  abroad  the 
glory  of  His  name.  And  then,  some  time,  the  lifting  mists  and 
the  vanishing  darkness  will  all  be  gone,  and  the  whole  round  world 
will  roll  into  liffht. 


CLOSING    ADDRESS.  353 


CLOSING  ADDRESS. 
Hon.  Samuel  B.  Capen,  LL.D. 

I  wish  it  were  possible  for  me,  at  this  closing  moment,  to  respond 
more  fitly  to  these  parting  words  of  our  brethren.  The  length  of 
the  days  and  the  shortness  of  the  nights,  the  past  week,  have  not 
allowed  the  best  preparation  for  such  a  service,  but  I  can  speak 
in  behalf  of  the  American  Board,  I  am  sure,  out  of  the  fullness  of 
my  heart,  our  gratitude  to  you,  gentlemen,  and  to  those  whom 
you  represent,  for  all  you  have  done  for  us.  Some  of  us  have 
known  by  a  similar  experience  of  the  weeks  and  the  months  which 
are  required  for  preparation  for  a  meeting  of  this  kind.  Some  of 
us  know  what  a  sacrifice  many  of  the  people  of  Williamstown  and 
North  Adams  have  made.  While  they  have  been  serving  us, 
they  must  necessarily  have  been  detained  in  their  homes  or  at  the 
church,  shut  out  from  all  these  meetings  and  all  this  inspiration. 
We  are  glad  to  recognize  it  today,  and  are  grateful  for  the  service. 
From  the  time  we  came  until  this  moment  the  various  committees 
have  been  most  careful  and  thoughtful  in  every  possible  way  to 
make  our  stay  with  you  happy.  You  have  indeed  opened  your 
hearts  as  well  as  your  homes  and  your  churches  to  us,  —  and  for 
it  all  we  are  most  grateful. 

There  has  been  one  feature  of  this  meeting  which  has  been 
peculiarly  beautiful,  I  think,  and  that  is  the  oneness  which  we 
have  seen  illustrated  here.  We  have  been  holding  our  centennial 
meeting  in  a  Methodist  church,  we  have  had  the  use  of  the  Baptist 
church  near  by,  we  have  had  official  greetings  from  the  United 
Brethren  and  from  the  Methodist  Protestants  and  from  the 
Armenian  Church,  last  night  we  were  led  in  prayer  by  our  Baptist 
brother,  and  this  morning  we  were  led  in  prayer  by  this  honored 
brother  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Is  it  not  suggestive  of  how 
near  wre  are  getting  together?  Barriers  are  down  abroad,  and 
they  are  going  to  be  lowered  at  home  as  we  go  about  our  common 
work. 

This  has  been  the  greatest  meeting,  I  think  we  must  say,  in  the 
history  of  the  Board.  And  why  has  it  been  the  greatest?  I 
believe  we  began  right,  —  we  began  far  back  in  prayer.  Dr. 
Patton  told  us  of  the  journey  to  Seattle  and  of  the  prayer  meeting 
on  the  train.     The  million-dollar  campaign  was  mapped  out  on 


354  THIS    HAYSTACK   CENTENNIAL. 

that  train,  and  from  that  hour  to  this  the  churches  have  been 
praying  for  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God  upon  this  meeting.  I 
am  not  forgetting  the  services  which  our  secretaries  and  others 
have  rendered  to  us.  I  am  not  forgetting  the  generous  help  of 
one  of  our  honored  friends  who,  at  the  last  minute,  turned  a  lot 
of  slow  assets,  which  we  had  not  counted  in  because  they  were  so 
slow,  into  the  quickest  sort  of  an  asset,  —  cash,  and  helped  us  out 
in  our  last  emergency.  I  am  not  forgetting  these  things,  but 
our  brother's  heart,  and  the  hearts  of  all  others  who  have  helped 
in  this  campaign,  have  been  touched  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  we 
believe,  in  answer  to  prayer.  We  have  seen  it  and  felt  it  all 
through  these  meetings.  Several  hundred  persons  meeting  in 
that  sunrise  prayer  meeting  at  Williamstown  is  one  indication, 
and  the  most  touching  thing  that  I  have  heard  of  in  connection 
with  these  meetings  was  the  fact  that  all  day  long  around  the 
Haystack  Monument  little  groups  of  people  came  and  went  and 
stayed  long  enough  to  have  a  prayer  meeting  together.  Think 
of  the  men  and  women  who  are  not  here,  but  have  been  praying 
for  this  meeting.  I  heard  yesterday  afternoon  from  our  honored 
former  vice-president,  Mr.  Blatchford.  He  sent  a  message  in 
which  he  said,  "In  an  hour  and  an  half  that  blessed  meeting  is 
going  to  begin."  We  heard  this  morning  from  Mayor  Jones,  of 
Minneapolis,  that  he  had  made  all  his  plans  for  months  previous 
to  be  here,  and  then,  because  of  the  necessities  upon  him  in  fight- 
ing not  only  a  battle  for  righteousness  in  Minneapolis,  but  a  battle 
for  righteousness  for  us  all,  he  stayed  away  from  this  meeting. 
And  do  you  not  think  that  Mr.  Blatchford  and  Mr.  Jones,  and 
those  others  who  could  not  come  here,  have  been  praying  for  us? 
We  have  felt  the  power  of  their  prayers  all  through  these  meetings. 
So  I  say  this  has  been  the  greatest  meeting  in  our  history,  because 
we  began  right  in  prayer,  and  we  have  continued  in  prayer,  and 
we  shall  end  in  prayer. 

What  a  contrast  to  one  hundred  years  ago!  Those  young  men 
were  ridiculed  then,  and  today  we  honor  these  missionaries.  We 
have  seen  these  native  Christians  with  our  own  eyes,  and  we  know 
now  the  result  of  what  is  going  on  in  the  foreign  field.  We  are 
ready  for  the  words  of  Dr.  Endicott  Peabody,  the  head  of  the 
famous  Groton  School,  when  he  said,  a  short  time  ago,  "  Missions 
are  the  grandest  work  in  the  world,  and  the  missionaries  are  the 
heroes  of  our  times."  We  are  ready  for  his  further  statement, 
made  a  few  days  ago,  as  I  understand,  to  his  class  of  boys,  "  Boys, 


CLOSING    ADDRESS.  355 

I  would  rather  you  would  each  one  be  a  foreign  missionary  than 
president  of  the  United  States."  When  a  man  like  Dr.  Peabody, 
in  a  position  like  that,  is  teaching  the  coming  generation  such 
truths,  we  see  how  great  is  the  change  and  the  contrast  between 
the  ridicule  and  the  sneer  of  one  hundred  years  ago  and  the  glory 
of  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God  now. 

The  men  of  the  haystack  had  a  great  vision,  and  we  see  some- 
thing of  the  results  of  their  dream.  We  have  heard  of  it  on  this 
platform.  We  know  what  has  been  done.  We  need  a  vision  —  a 
vision  of  the  might}'  Master  who  is  doing  all  the  work.  May  we 
not  go  from  here  remembering  that  for  one  hundred  years  we  have 
been  putting  "in  the  foundations?  And  it  has  been  slow  work, 
some  of  it.  Now  we  are  going  to  build  the  superstructure,  and  the 
work  is  going  more  rapidly.  At  the  present  pace  we  can  accom- 
plish it  in  fifty  years.  That  is  not  enough;  we  want  to  quicken 
the  step  and  do  it  in  twenty-five  years.'  And  we  can  do  it,  if  we 
will  only,  here  and  now,  as  in  the  sight  of  Almighty  God,  go  and 
consecrate  ourselves,  our  time,  our  talents,  our  means,  all  we 
have,  as  the  men  of  the  haystack  consecrated  themselves.  I  was 
thinking,  this  morning,  in  the  quiet  of  my  room,  why  not  have  a 
motto  for  the  next  hundred  years?  Samuel  J.  Mills,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, gave  it  a  hundred  years  ago, —  "  We  can  do  it  if  we  will." 
Henry  Bissell,  of  India,  —  the  first  country  to  which  the  American 
Board  sent  its  missionaries,  —  gave  us  the  motto  for  the  new 
century  last  night.  The  words  have  already  been  spoken  here 
by  our  honored  brother  bearing  the  name  of  Hume,  and  in  the 
report  of  the  committee.  Let  us  leave  out  the  "  and  "  and  put 
it  as  Bissell  put  it,  —  "  We  can,  we  will!  "  Friends,  will  you  say 
it  over  after  me,  as  in  the  sight  of  God?     "  We  can,  we  will!  " 

May  God  help  us  to  keep  our  pledge!     Amen. 


INDICES. 


SPEAKERS. 


Abbott,  Rev.  Lyman,  D.D.,  262. 

Akana,  Akaiko,  of  Hawaii,  128. 

Barton,  Rev.  James  L.,  D.D.,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Foreign  Department, 
18,  289. 

Beach,  Prof.  Harlan  P.,  of  Yale  Uni- 
versity, 200. 

Bell,  Bishop  William  M.,  D.D.,  of  the 
United  Brethren,  223. 

Bissell,  Rev.  Henry  G.,  of  Ahmed- 
nagar,  India,  297. 

Bridgman,  Rev.  Frederick  B.,  of  the 
South  African  Mission,  319. 

Brown,  Rev.  Arthur  Judson,  D.D., 
Secretary  of  the  Presbyterian 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  New 
York,  110. 

Busfield,  Rev.  Theodore  E.,  D.D., 
Pastor  of  the  North  Adams  Con- 
gregational Church,  350. 

Calkins,  Rev.  Raymond,  of  Portland, 
Me.,  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  the  Report  of  the  Foreign 
Department,  234,  235. 

Capen,  Hon.  Samuel  B.,  LL.D.,  Presi- 
dent of  the  American  Board,  9,  66, 
108,  353! 

Chamberlain,  Rev.  Oscar  M.,  of 
Turkey,  133. 

Chandler,  Rev.  John  S.,  of  Madura, 
India,  335. 

Channon,  Rev.  Irving  M.,  of  Micro- 
nesia, 43. 

Clark,  Rev.  Francis  E.,  D.D.,  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  Society  of  Chris- 
tian Endeavor,  185. 

Cobb,  Rev.  Henry  Evertson,  D.D., 
Pastor  of  the  Collegiate  Church, 
New  York,  179. 

Creegan.  Rev.  C.  C,  D.D.,  268. 


Currie,  Rev.  Walter  T.,  of  the  West 

Central  Africa  Mission,  245. 
Davis,  Joshua  W.,  Chairman  of  the 

Committee     on     the     Treasurer's 

Report,  255. 
Day,  Rev.  Charles  O.,  D.D.,  President 

of  Andover  Theological  Seminary, 

210. 
Denison,  Rev.  John  Hopkins,  Pastor 

of  Central  Congregational  Church, 

Boston,  84. 
Dodd,    Rev.    AVilliam    S.,    M.D.,    of 

the  Western  Turkey   Mission,    39, 

150. 
Eaton,  Rev.  Edward  D.,  D.D.,  316. 
Ewing,  Rev.  G.  H.,  read  report  of 

Committee     on     Report     of     the 

Foreign  Department,  234. 
Fei  Chi  Hao,  of  China,  a  Student  at 

Yale  University,  129. 
Ford,  Hon.  Marshall  R.,   Mayor  of 

North  Adams,  8. 
Gates,  Rev.  George  A.,  D.D.,  Presi- 
dent   of    Pomona    College,    Clare- 

mont,  Cal.,  45. 
Gumede,    Stephen    ka'   Ndunge,    of 

South  Africa,  a  graduate  of  Wilber- 

force    University,  Ohio,  and   now 

a    student    at    the    University   of 

Michigan,  135. 
Hicks,   Mr.   HaiTy  Wade,   Associate 

Secretary  of  the  American  Board, 

33. 
Hillis,    Rev.    Newell   Dwight,   D.D., 

Pastor  of  Plymouth  Congregational 

Church,  Brooklyn,  94. 
Hitchcock,     Rev.     A.     N.,     Ph.D., 

Chicago,  111.,  District  Secretary  for 

the  Interior,  273. 
Hiwrale,  Arnold  Sidobe.  of  India,  124. 


358 


INDICES. 


Hopkins,  Rev.  Henry,  D.D.,  Presi- 
dent of  Williams  College,  63. 

Hume,  Rev.  Robert  Ernest,  342. 

Hyde,  Rev.  William  DeWitt,  D.D., 
President  of  Bowdoin  College,  68. 

Judson,  Rev.  Edward,  D.D.,  Pastor 
of  Memorial  Baptist  Church,  New 
York,  78. 

King,  Rev.  Henry  O,  D.D.,  President 
of  Oberlin  College,  163. 

Kinnear,  Rev.  H.  N.,  M.D.,  of  China, 
324. 

Kulasinghe,  Henry  M.  Hoisington,  of 
Ceylon,  127. 

K'ung,  H.  H.,  of  China,  a  graduate  of 
Oberlin  College,  and  now  a  gradu- 
ate student  at  Yale  University, 
131. 

Manavian,  Rev.  G.  M.,  the  Moderator 
of  the  Armenian  Evangelical  Alli- 
ance of  America,  177. 

McLaughlin,  Rev.  R.  W.,  D.D.,  of 
Grand  Rapids,  Mich.,  Chairman 
of  the  Committee  on  the  Report 
of  the  Home  Department,  250, 
252. 

Moore,  Rev.  Edward  G,  D.D.,  of 
Harvard  University,  Chairman  of 
the  Prudential  Committee  of  the 
American  Board,  232. 

Mott,  Mr.  John  R.,  Chairman  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Stu- 
dent Volunteer  Movement,  and 
General  Secretary  of  the  World's 
Student  Christian  Federation,  187. 

Ogburn,  Rev.  T.  J.,  D.D.,  of  the 
Methodist  Protestants,  227. 

Patton,  Rev.  Cornelius  H.,  D.D.,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Home  Department 
of  the  American  Board,   14. 

Pentecost,  Rev.  George  F.,  D.D.,  221. 


Ponce,  Sefior  Frederic  R.,  Professor 
in  Colegio  Internacional,  Guada- 
lajara, Mexico,  142. 

Reitinger,  Rev.  Philip,  of  Bohemia, 
139. 

Richmond,  Mr.  Clinton  Q.,  of  North 
Adams,  347. 

Roberts,  Rev.  James  H.,  of  the  North 
China  Mission,  344. 

Sailer,  Mr.  T.  H.  P.,  Ph.D.,  Educa- 
tional Secretary  of  the  Presby- 
terian Board  of  Foreign  Missions, 
60. 

Sato,  Rev.  S.,  of  Japan,  and  of  Ober- 
lin Theological  Seminary,  138. 

Tenney,  Rev.  H.  Melville,  of  Berke- 
ley, Cal.,  District  Secretary  for  the 
Pacific  Coast,  277. 

Tewksbury,  Rev.  Elwood  G.,  a  mis- 
sionary at  Tung  Chou,  North 
China,  328. 

Thompson,  Rev.  W.  E.,  Pastor  of  the 
Methodist  Church,  North  Adams, 
348. 

Trowbridge,  Rev.  Stephen  Van  Rens- 
selaer, formerly  Assistant  Pastor 
to  Rev.  S.  Parkes  Cadman,  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y.,  and  now  under  appoint- 
ment of  the  American  Board  to  go 
to  Aintab,  Turkey,  160. 

Tucker,  Rev.  William  J.,  D.D.,  Presi- 
dent of  Dartmouth  College,  72. 

Wiggin,  Mr.  Frank  H.,  Treasurer  of 
the  American  Board,  11. 

Wishard,  Mr.  Luther  D.,  143. 

Zumbro,  President  William  M.,  of 
Pasumalai  College,  Madura,  India, 
155. 

Zwemer,  Rev.  Samuel  M.,  D.D.,  of 
Arabia,  a  missionary  of  the  Re- 
formed Church,  104,  281. 


INDICES.  359 


TITLES  OF  ADDRESSES. 


American  College,  Madura,  The,  and  the  Conquest  of  an  Empire.     President 
William  M.  Zumbro,  of  Pasumalai  College,  Madura,  155. 
The  Needs  of  India,  155;  Conditions  in  India,  157. 
Beauty  of  Service,  The.     Ilex.  Robert  Ernest  Hume,  342. 
Brief  Addresses  by  Native  Christians  from  the  Foreign  Mission  Fields,  124. 
China  Awakening.     Rev.  James  H.  Roberts,  of  the  North  China  Mission,  344. 
Changes  within    the   Century  in   Foreign   Missionary  Theory  and   Practice. 
Rev.  Henry  C.  King,  D.U.,  President  of  Oberlin  College,  163. 

Prevailing  Motive,  1G3;   Broad  Methods,  164;   Applied  Christian  Princi- 
ples,   167;    Certain    Growing   Convictions,  170;    The    Need,    172;    Our 
Attitude,  175;  The  Methods,  176. 
Christian  Missions  in  Turkey.     Rev.  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer  Trowbridge, 
formerly  Assistant  Pastor  to  Rev.  8.  Parkes  Cadman,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y., 
now  under  Appointment  of  the  American  Board  to  go  to  Aintab,  Turkey, 
160. 
Closing  Addresses: 

(a)  For  the  Committee  of  Entertainment.     Mr.  Clinton  Q.  Richmond,  of 

North  Adams,  347. 

(b)  For  the  Methodist  Church.     Rev.   W.   E.   Thompson,   Pastor  of  the 

Methodist  Church,  North  Adams,  34S. 

(c)  For  the  Congregational  Churches  of  North  Adams  and  Williamstown. 

Rev.  Theodore  E.  Busfield,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  North  Adams  Con- 
gregational Church,  350. 

(d)  Hon.  Samuel  B.  Capen,  LL.D.,  353. 

1  >iscussion  as  to  the  Future  Policy  of  the  Board  at  Home. 
(a)  Rev.  Lyman  Abbott,  D.D.,  262. 

Three  Postulates,  263;    Practical  Methods,  264;    A   Humanitarian   Age. 

266. 
(6)  Rev.  C.  C.  Creegan,  D.D.,  268. 

(c)  Rev.  A.  N.  Hitchcock,  Ph.D.,  Chicago,  111.,  District  Secretary  for  the 

Interior,  273. 

(d)  Rev.  H.  Melville  Tenney,  Berkeley,  Cal.,  District  Secretary  for  the 

Pacific  Coast,  277. 
Evangelization,  The,  of   the  Mohammedan  World   in  this  Generation.     Rev. 
Samuel  M.  Zwemer,  D.D.,  of  Arabia,  a  Missionary  of  the  Reformed  Church, 
281. 

The  Vast  Proportions  of  the  Undertaking,  281 ;    The  Necessity  of  this 
Undertaking.   283;    The   Possibility    of    this    Undertaking.    285:     The 
Urgency  of  this  Undertaking,  287. 
Evangelization,  The,  of  the  World,  the  Essential  Condition  of  American  Chris- 
tianity.    Rev.  Edward  Judson,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  Memorial  Baptist  Church, 
New  York,  78. 


360  INDICES. 

Future,  The,  of  Missionary  Work.     Rev.  Arthur  Judson  Brown,  D.U.,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  New  York,  110. 
Greetings : 

(a)  From  the  United  Brethren.     Bishop  "William  M.  Bell,  D.D.,  223. 

(b)  From  the  Methodist  Protestants.     Rev.  T.  J.  Ogburn,  D.D.,  227. 

(c)  From  Arnold  Sidobe  Hiwale,  of  India,  124. 

(d)  From  Henry  M.  Hoisington  Kulasinghe,  of  Ceylon,  127. 

(e)  From  Fei  Chi  Hao,  of  China,  a  student  at  Yale  University,  129. 

(/)    From  H.  H.  K'ung,  of  China,  a  graduate  of  Oberlin  College,  and  now  a 

graduate  student  at  Yale  University,  131. 
(<7)   From  Rev.  Oscar  M.  Chamberlain,  of  Turkey,  133. 
(h)  From  Stephen  ka  Ndunge  Gumecle,  of  South  Africa,  a  graduate  of 
Wilberforce  University,  Ohio,  and  now  a  student  at  the  University 
of  Michigan,  135. 
(i)    From  Rev.  S.  Sato,  of  Japan,  and  of  Oberlin  Theological  Seminary,  138. 
(/)    From  Rev.  Philip  Reitinger,  of  Bohemia,  139. 

(k)  From  Senor  Frederic  R.   Ponce,   Professor  in  Colegio  International. 
Guadalajara,  Mexico,  142. 
Haystack  Men  in  the  Ministry.     Rev.  Charles  O.  Day,  D.D.,  President  of 

Andover  Theological  Seminary,  210. 
Hero,   The,   of  the  Haystack:    An   Illustrated  Lecture.     Rev.  Thomas  C. 

Richards,  Williams,  '87,  Pastor  at  Warren,  Mass.,  214. 
"Hospital,  The,  in  Cesarea.     Rev.  William  S.  Dodd,  M.D.,  of  Western  Turkey, 

150. 
How  the  Gospel  Works  among  the  Zulus.     Rev.  Frederick  B.  Bridgman,  of 
the  South  African  Mission,  319. 

Results  of  the  Gospel,  320;  Outlook  for  the  Future,  322. 
In  Memory  of  Rev.  Judson  Smith,  D.D.     Rev.  Edward  D.  Eaton,  D.D.,  316. 
India's  Millions  for  Christ.     Rev.  Henry  G.  Bissell,  of  Ahmednagar,  India,  297. 
Social  Life  of  India,  297;  Religious  Life  of  India,  299;  Mohammedanism, 
300;    Hinduism,  301;     Controlling   Ideas,    302;    Field    of   the  Marathi 
Mission,  304;    Attitude  of  the  Natives  of  India,  306;  Our  Opportunity 
and  Duty,  308;  A  Message,  309. 
Kind,  The,  of  Young  Men  and  Women  Needed  for  the  Mission  Field.     Rev. 
Francis   E.   Clark,    D.D.,    President   of  the   United   Society   of  Christian 
Endeavor,  185. 
Madura  Mission,  The,  and  Its  Work.     Rev.  John  S.  Chandler,  335. 
Memorial  of  the  Armenian  Evangelical  Alliance  of  America  to  the  Directors 
and  Members  of  the  American  Board.     Rev.  G.  M.  Man  avian,  the  Mod- 
erator of  the  Alliance,  177. 
Men  of  the  Haystack  the  Forerunners  of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement. 

Mr.  Luther  D.  Wishard,  143. 
Message  of  Akaiko  Akana,  of  Hawaii,  128. 

Message,  The,  of  the  Haystack  Men  to  the  Church  of  Today.     Rev.  Henry 
Evertson  Cobb,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Collegiate  Church,  New  York,  179. 
Forgotten  Essentials,  179;   Confidence  and  Consecration,  181;    Need  of 
Prayer,  183. 
Missionary  Century,  A.     Rev.  William  J.  Tucker,  D.D.,  President  of  Dart- 
mouth College,  72. 


INDICES.  361 

Missionary  Challenge,  The,  to  the  Students  of  this  Generation.     Prof.  Harlan 
P.  Beach,  of  Yale  University,  200. 
The  Qualifications,  200;    Demands  of  the  Fields,  202;    The  Missionary 
Challenge,  204;   Exceeding  Great  Reward,  207. 
Mission  Study  Class  Methods:    A  Summary.     T.  II.  P.  Sailer,  Ph.D.,  Edu- 
cational Secretary  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  60. 
Moslems  in  Turkey.     Rev.  James  L.  Barton,  D.D.,  Secretary  of  the  Foreign 
Department,  289. 

Significant  Facts  in  the  Turkey  Field,  290;  Christian  Missions  Are  Strongly 
Intrenched  in  the  Turkish  Empire,  292;  Preparations  for  Advance,  293; 
Ways  of  Advancing,  295. 
New  Motives  and  Changed  Purposes  in  Missions.     Rev.  John  Hopkins  Deni- 
son,  Pastor  of  Central  Congregational  Church,  Boston,  84. 

International  Justice,  85;   Cosmopolitan  Responsibility,  87;    The  Chris- 
tian Motive,   88;    The   Aim   of   Missions,   90;    The  Test  of  Missions, 
92. 
New  Premises,  The,  and  the  Old  Conclusions.     Rev.  William  DeWitt  Hyde, 
D.D.,  President  of  Bowdoin  College,  68. 

The  Old  and  the  New,  68;  An  Efficient  Instrument,  70. 
Opening  Address  (in  Mission  Park  Service).     Hon.  Samuel  B.  Capen,  LL.D., 

President  of  the  American  Board,  108. 
Opening  Address  (of  Thursday  Morning).     Rev.  George  F.  Pentecost,  D.D., 

221. 
Plea,  A,  for  the  Medical  Work  in  China.     Rev.  H.  N.  Kinnear,  M.D.,  324. 
Present  Opportunity  in  Micronesia.     Rev.  Irving  M.  Channon,  43. 
Price,  The,  of  Missionary  Success:  A  Summary.     Rev.  Samuel  M.  Zwemer, 

D.D.,  of  Arabia,  104. 
Reports  of 

(a)  The  Treasurer,  Frank  H.  Wiggin  (Extracts  from),  11. 
(6)  The  Home  Secretary,  Rev.  Cornelius  H.  Patton,  D.D.  (Extracts  from), 
14. 
Death  of  Secretary  Smith,  14;  Appointment  of  Missionaries,  14;  Need  of 
Candidates,    15;    The    Million-Dollar   Campaign,  15;    The    Support   of 
Higher  Educational  Institutions,  16;   In  Conclusion,  17. 

(c)  The  Foreign  Secretary,  Rev.  James  L.  Barton,  D.D.  (Extracts  from),  18. 
Political  Outlook  and  Changes,  18;  Cooperation,  21;  Turkey,  22;  India 
and  Ceylon,  23;  China,  24;  Japan,  27;  Africa,  29  j  Pacific  Islands,  30; 
Papal  Lands,  31 ;  Conclusion,  32. 

(d)  Department  for  Young  People  and  Education  (Extracts  from).     Mr. 

Harry  Wade  Hicks,  33. 
Field  Work,  33;    Sale  of  Literature  —  Mission  Study,  34;    The  Station 
Plan,    35;    Christian    Endeavor    Societies,    36;     Sunday-Schools,    36; 
Young  Men,  37;  Student  Cooperation,  37. 

(e)  The  Committee  on  the  Report  of  the  Foreign  Department,  Rev.  Ray- 

mond Calkins,  Chairman.     Read  by  Rev.  G.  H.  Ewing,  234. 

(/)  The  Committee  on  the  Report  of  the  Home  Department.  Rev.  R.  \V. 
McLaughlin,  D.D.,  Chairman,  250. 

{g)  The  Committee  on  the  Treasurer's  Report.  Joshua  W.  Davis,  Chair- 
man, 255. 


362  IxNDICES. 

Response  to  the  Address  of  Welcome  by  Major  Ford.     Hon.  Samuel  B. 

Capen,  LL.D.,  President  of  the  American  Board,  9. 
Response  to  the  Address  of  Welcome  by  President  Hopkins.     Hon.  Samuel  B. 

Capen,  LL.D.,  President  of  the  American  Board,  66. 
Response  to  the  Greetings  from  the  United  Brethren  and  the  Methodist 
Protestants.     Rev.  Edward  C.  Moore,  D.D.,  of  Harvard  University,  Chair- 
man of  the  Prudential  Committee  of  the  American  Board,  232. 
Rising  Tide,  The.     Rev.  William  S.  Dodd,  M.D.,  of  the  Western  Turkey 

Mission,  39. 
Sermon,  The  Annual.     Rev.  George  A.  Gates,  D.D.,  President  of  Pomona 
College,  Claremont,  Cal.,  45. 

"  The  Love  of  Christ  Constraineth  Us,"  45;  Contributions  to  Modern  Life, 
47;   New  World-Visions,   49;    Things  that  Put  Us  to  Shame,  51;   The 
Passion  of  the  Cross,  53. 
Significance,  The,  of   this  Anniversary.     Rev.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis,  D.D., 
Pastor  of  Plymouth  Congregational  Church,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  94. 

Invisible  Forces,  94;    Concrete  Examples,  96;    Influence  on  Commerce, 

98;   The  Heroism  of  foreign  Missions,  99;   An  Appeal  to  Young  Men, 

101. 

Vision,  The,  of  the  Haystack  Realized.     Mr.  John  R.  Mott,  Chairman  of  the 

Executive  Committee  of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  and  General 

Secretary  of  the  World's  Student  Christian  Federation,  187. 

Students'    Organizations,    188;     Student   Volunteers,    190;     Missionary 
Movements,   192;    World  Evangelization,   194;    Missionary  Expansion, 
197. 
Welcome,  Address  of.     Marshall  R.  Ford,  Mayor  of  North  Adams,  8. 
Welcome,  Address  of.     Rev.  Henry  Hopkins,  D.D.,  President  of  Williams 

College,  63. 
West  Central  Africa  Mission,  The,     Rev.  Walter  T.  Currie,  245. 
Work,  The,  and  the  Missionary.     Rev.  Elwood  G.  Tewksbury,  Missionary  at 
Tung-Chou,  North  China,  328. 

Conditions  of  Work  in  North  China,  329;  Points  to  be  Emphasized,  332. 
Work,  The,  of  the  Foreign  Department.     Rev.  Raymond  Calkins,  of  Portland, 
Me.,  235. 

Supreme  Purpose  of  Missions,  235;  Use  of  Native  Agencies,  237;  A  Well- 
Rounded   Gospel,   239;    Cooperation,  241;    Native  Christian   Churches, 
242. 
Work,  The,  of  the  Home  Department.     Rev.  R.  W.  McLaughlin,  of  Grand 
Rapids,  Mich.,  252. 


INDICES.  363 


MISSION   LANDS   REFERRED  TO. 


Africa. 

Political  Outlook  and  Changes  in,  19. 
Report  of  American  Board  Missions  in,  29,  30. 

Greeting  from  Stephen  ka  Ndunga  Gumede,  of  South  Africa,  135-138. 
The  West  Central  Africa  Mission.     By  Rev.  Walter  T.  Currie,  245-249. 
How  the  Gospel  Works  among  the  Zulus.     By  Rev.  Frederick  B.  Bridg- 
man,  of  the  South  Africa  Mission,  319-323. 

Armenia. 

Memorial  of  the  Armenian  Evangelical  Alliance  of  America  to  the  Directors 
and  Members  of  the  American  Board,  177-178. 

Bohemia. 

Greeting  from  Rev.  Philip  Reitinger,  of  Bohemia,  139-141. 

Ceylon.     (See  India  and  Ceylon.) 

China. 

Political  Outlook  and  Changes  in,  20-21 . 

Cooperation  in,  22. 

Reports  of  American  Board  Mission  in,  24-27. 

Greeting  from  Fei  Chi  Hao,  of  China,  129-131. 

Greeting  from  H.  H.  K'ung,  of  China,  131-133. 

A  Plea  for  the  Medical  Work  in.    Rev.  H.  N.  Kinnear,  M.D.,  324-327. 

The  Work  and  the  Missionary.    'Rev.  Elwood  G.  Tewksbury,  missionary  at 

Tung  Chou,  North  China,  328-334. 
China  Awakening.     Rev.  James  H.  Roberts,  of  the  North  China  Mission, 

344-346. 

Hawaii. 

Message  of  Akaiko  Akana,  of  Hawaii,  128-129. 

India  and  Ceylon. 
Cooperation  in,  22. 

Report  of  American  Board  Missions  in,  23-24. 
Greetings  from  Arnold  Sidobe  Hi  wale,  of  India,  124-126. 
Greetings  from  Henry  M.  Hoisington  Kulasinghe,  of  Ceylon  127-128. 
The  American  College,  Madura,  and  the  Conquest  of  an  Empire.     President 

William  M.  Zumbro,  of  Pasumalai  College,  Madura,  155-159. 
India's  Millions  for  Christ.     Rev.  Henry  G.  Bissell,  of  Ahmednagar,  297-309. 
A  Message  from  American  Board  Missionaries  in  India,  309-310. 
A  Mission  from  Indian  Christians,  310. 

The  Madura  Mission  and  Its  Work.     Rev.  John  S.  Chandler,  335-341. 
The  Beauty  of  Service.     Rev.  Robert  Ernest  Hume,  342-343. 


364  INDICES. 

Japan. 

Political  Outlook  and  Changes  in,  20. 
Report  of  American  Board  Missions  in,  27-29. 
Greetings  from  Rev.  S.  Sato,  of  Japan,  138-139. 

Mexico. 

Greeting  from  Senor  Frederic  R.  Ponce,  Professor  in  Colegio  Internacional, 
of  Guadalajara,  Mexico,  142. 

Micronesia. 

Cooperation  in,  21. 

Present  Opportunity  in.     Rev.  Irving  M.  Channon,  43-44.  ' 

Mohammedan  Lands. 

The  Evangelization  of  the  Mohammedan  World  in  this  Generation.     Rev. 

Samuel  M.  Zwemer,  D.D.,  of  Arabia,  281-288. 
Moslems  in  Turkey.     Rev.  James  L.  Barton,  D.D.,  289-296. 

Pacific  Islands. 

Report  of  American  Board  Missions  in,  30-31. 

Papal  Lands. 

Report  of  American  Board  Missions  in,  31-32. 

Persia. 

Political  Outlook  and  Changes  in,  18. 

Russia. 

Political  Outlook  and  Changes  in,  and  Relation  of  the  American  Board  to, 
19. 

Turkey. 

Political  Outlook  and  Changes  in,  18. 

Cooperation  in,  21. 

Report  of  American  Board  Missions  in,  22,  23. 

The  Rising  Tide.     Rev.  William  S.  Dodd,  M.D.,  of  the  Western  Turkey 

Mission,  39-42. 
Greeting  from  Rev.  Oscar  M.  Chamberlain,  of  Turkey,  133-135. 
The  Hospital  in  Cesarea.     Rev.  William  S.  Dodd,  M.D.,  of  Western  Turkey, 

150-154. 
Christian  Missions  in  Turkey.     Rev.  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer  Trowbridge, 

under  appointment  to  Aintab,  Turkey,  160-162. 
Moslems  in  Turkey.     Rev.  James  L.  Barton,  D.D.,  289-296. 


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